


House of the Cursed

by VWarin



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, Falling In Love, Female Relationships, Fluff, Friendship, LGBTQ Character, LGBTQ Themes, Romance, Shapeshifting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:54:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 23,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23984122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VWarin/pseuds/VWarin
Summary: The Owl House has become a safe haven for those cursed to transform into a monster that overwhelms their will thanks to Eda taking in three kids suffering a similar curse to her own. Gus, Willow, and Amity. Now her search of trinkets in the human world has led to a human with such a curse as well, Luz, being led to her safe haven.
Relationships: Amity Blight/Luz Noceda
Comments: 68
Kudos: 453





	1. Arrival

As she continued to run, Luz found the trees to be endless. They continued to rush right past her as she raced away from the life she once knew. For Luz, life had never been normal but that was mainly because she was the type to make it strange and exciting. Even if she wanted something fantastical to come into her life, she was starting to regret that wish as it had been granted to her in the most horrifying way possible. The words of her distressed mother were still loud and clear in her memories.

“Monstro!” her mother had yelled.  
Luz was aware of a few things that night she had run off and escaped, scared of the very change that had come into her life. Her mother had seen her and believed her to be a monster, Luz didn’t blame her. When she managed to get a look at herself, Luz considered herself to be a monster too. The last thing she remembered being her mother calling out to her before she started to make her race into the woods.

“Luz! Luz! Donde estas?! Where are you, mija?!” calling out to Luz in a desperate hope she’d find her, that she’d come home.

Luz wasn’t bound to, not when she feared what her mother would say if she found out she had been the monster that she had seen and tried to run away from. 

Even as she had returned to her normal form Luz sat down inside an abandoned home left completely empty, needing to find cover to wait out the rain. There she thought about what she would do out on her own and with nowhere to go. At least, not in her world. As the rain continued to pelt the roof and patter on Luz could hear something flying around within the house. Curious to see this bird, Luz followed the sound and found a small owl unlike any she had seen before. The particular owl she was seeing was smaller, a distinctly sharp silhouette, and there was even intelligence to the eyes.

“Hey little guy, are you lost?” Luz asked, trying to reach out.

The owl didn’t avoid Luz’s touch but he did hop away like he was ready to lead the way and in fact, there was a door Luz was lead through covered in unique symbols with a large eye heavily prominent in the center.

Making it out to the other side, Luz was in a forest again and it was still raining but she looked around shocked and wondering where the house she had taken shelter in was. The door she had gone through was now closed up and nowhere to be seen, so Luz pulled up her hoodie and held it as close to her head as she could to make up for how torn up it was. Her hope lied with the owl who had lead her into the new world.

After a bit more of running through the rain, Luz saw another house. One much older than anything she had seen. Seeming to be made of stone and glass stained windows fitting of an age gone by or of a Fantasy story The owl simply flew in through one of the open windows.  
Seeing no other refuge in sight, Luz knocked on the door only to be met with a high pitched screechy voice.

“What’s the password?” 

The demand seemed to come from the owl style knocker itself, another surprise for Luz who felt a fear response kick in. With a shriek, she reached over to what seemed to be a handy pole preparing to swing it over at the living knocker who seemed to be quite aware of Luz’s intention given he widened his eyes and opened up his beak to shriek only for the door to be opened by a pale-skinned woman with a mane of grey hair in a red dress. Her yellow eyes looking at Luz with scrutiny.

“Kid, what are you doing out here? You’re lucky it’s not boiling rain out today.” Eda said.

Taking a closer look, Eda realized it was a human who had made her way to her home and with her talisman making his way back to her staff Eda realized what she had on her hands. Eda took Luz’s pole away from her before grabbing Luz herself by the ear.

“Hurry up and come in but don’t try to vandalize my house again while you’re here,” Eda said, speaking over the pained protests of Luz who was dragged onto the bat-shaped couch in the living room.

“Stay right there, I’m going to make you some tea and then we’ll talk about what you’re doing here,” Eda said as she went into the kitchen.

Luz stayed put on the couch just to catch up on everything she had seen in the last few minutes. Teleportation, owls turning into inanimate talismans, a woman unlike any she had ever seen. It was all clearly quite a show of magic, and frankly, she could believe it with what had happened to her just before arriving. Luz hoped she had made it to a new home where her change wouldn’t be so odd and where it actually made sense. Perhaps someone could help her in the new world of magic she was in, even cure her. If that was really the case then being led into Eda’s home was like a godsend, and maybe she could go back home. If there was a way back for her.

Sighing after breaking out of her thoughts, Luz looked over to see that on the couch was a small canine-like creature with what appeared to be a skull for a head sound asleep. Captivated by the adorable appearance of the creature, Luz softly gasped as she clasped her hands together and looked at King with a shimmer in her eyes. Just as she was reaching out to pet him, Eda seemed to know her intention even from the kitchen. At that moment she called out a warning.  
“Don’t pet King! You’ll get hurt if you go petting a demon.” 

Really it was King’s pride that would be the most hurt after such an ordeal were he to know the stranger Eda had welcomed into their home had been allowed to pet him like a common pet. The most he could do to Luz being a quick bite or scratch as a scared reaction from waking up because of the physical contact. Unaware of this Luz pulled away, moving back to her place on the couch to give the demon his space. So, King went on sleeping peacefully and dreaming of world domination as his steady breaths showed physically.

Luz, however, had nothing to focus on as she preferred to avoid looking at her phone with the notifications showing messages from her mother pleading to know where she was at. Needing to keep her mind distracted, especially with no sign of Eda finishing up brewing the tea, Luz got off the couch and started exploring the house.

Taking a closer look around the living room, Luz became interested over the sight of all the knick-knacks but paying more attention to the walls they seemed to be alive and breathing.  
“Oh, cool. The living room is living.” she joked to herself and went off to the stairway to see that the rest of the walls actually were still.

“Hmm. Maybe the rest of the rooms are more literal. Like a bedroom made completely out of a bed.” Luz said, coming to that realization with excitement as she went off down a hall of the first floor to find a bedroom. 

Luz came upon a door marked with a rose emblem and thinking on it for a moment Luz thought out loud to herself.

“Must be a garden,” she said, stepping in to see that her assumptions were true in a sense.

The entire room was like a fantastical greenhouse, the flowers were singing, sneezing, jumping, and all manner of fast-moving activity. Beyond that, every plant seemed to be unique to the magical world. Vines that moved like tentacles, bushes of berries that looked like eyes with dilating black pints, and as Luz looked on in wonder at everything in the room she nearly missed the equally living carnivorous plant roaring at her as it tried to reach out to scoop her up for its next meal.

“Aaaaah!” Luz screamed as she tried bolting out of the room just as the plant was about to scoop her up in its vines.

Luckily an entirely separate set of vines reached down and restrained the meat-eating plant before any harm could come upon Luz. Dropping from the upper level was a round-faced girl with glasses and dark blue hair, her green aura, and pointed ears clued Luz in that she was a magic user much like Eda.

“Audrey! That’s a bad Venesius Meat Trap. We don’t eat guests.” she scolded the plant who immediately slumped and whimpered like a puppy. A gentle act that made Willow soften after a stressed-out sigh.

“Awww. I sure hate to be mad at you,” she said while stroking the top part of its head.  
Luz looked bashful as she rubbed the back of her head.

“Oh. I’m sorry, I didn’t know this was your room. I thought it was a garden. I’ll, well I should be getting back to the living room.” Luz said.

“No, that’s alright. My room is pretty much a garden. I’m Willow, are you one of Eda’s guests?” Willow said.

“I’m Luz. I guess you could say that, she kind of dragged me into her house out of the rain.” Luz said, having assumed the older witch was named Eda.

“Did the boiling rain do that to your clothes? I’d let you borrow some of my clothes, but, they probably wouldn’t fit and I’m not the best at weaving. Maybe Eda can fix them up.” Willow said, taking a look at Luz’s torn up clothes.

“Boiling rain?” Luz asked and briefly considered the kind of weather that would be unique to the world she was in.

“No, it was just regular rain but thank you,” Luz said, rather grateful for the offer despite noting the same problem.

Willow took a closer look at Luz, particularly around the ears, and with that, an epiphany came to her which was the result of a few years now spending time around a friend interested by many things human.

“Hey, you’re human aren’t you?” Willow asked.  
“I.” Luz started nervously, not sure if that would make a difference or bring up more questions than was worth answering.

“I am,” she said, realizing it was best to not avoid the obvious and offer sincerity to Willow.

Willow chuckled a little before saying.

“Eda likes to bring in a lot of human things but this is the first time she brings a human through.”

Luz chuckled over that before explaining.

“Well, she didn’t bring me in on purpose. Just kinda saved me from a rough time out there.” Luz said.

“Yeah, she kind of helps kids like us who are having trouble living normally. The Owl House is pretty much the place for that.” Willow said.

Eda walked in after opening the door slightly to see if Luz was there and that everything was alright.

“There you are. Well, come on get the tea while it’s hot and can still warm you up.” Eda said, holding a teacup and teapot in a tray holding out towards Luz.

Luz went over to Eda, taking the small cup and looking at the grey brew with interest.

“Thank you,” she said gratefully to Eda before taking a sip. Savoring it for a moment Luz hummed, enjoying the taste of the tea. Feeling it was a bit herbal but mostly a sweet hot drink.

“So you’ve gotten yourself acquainted with Willow, one of my.” Eda stopped to consider the word like she immediately thought of one before going back on it.

“Wards,” Eda said.

“Are there other kids living here in your house?!” Luz said, excited to meet more kids like Willow who she seemed to hit it off with fantastic.

“Yes, there are two more but you’ll meet them when time is right,” Eda said, putting her index finger and thumb on her chin as she started to think.

“Well, you can meet Gus already but finish your tea first,” Eda said upon finishing her thought.

Luz seemed to just take the whole cup of hot tea in one long sip after hearing that. Putting it back on the tea tray leaving Eda wondering if she was wrong about just how much heat humans were supposedly able to tolerate. Or rather if the bouncing cheeriness was a result of such a quick sip of hot drink.

“Yes. I’d like to meet him, please. I’m Luz, by the way. Willow already told me your name, Eda.” Luz said, quite a glow to her and a spring in her step that was surprising both Eda and Willow.

“Thanks for catching her up on the boring bits, Willow. Now would you mind taking back the tray?” Eda said, looking quite tired to be holding the tea set. Thus Willow quickly took it from Eda’s hold nodding in agreement before going to drop it off in the kitchen.

“Is Gus down the hall?” Luz asked.

“Yes, just three.” Eda started only to see Luz rushing off down the hall to find Gus on her own. Leaving her there to consider how much she’d have to keep Luz out of trouble if it was common for her to rush off and explore the new and unknown. Even if she did already like that quality in Luz and how it reminded her of herself in her younger years.

“You’ve really brought back a spunky one,” Eda said to Owlbert despite being in his inanimate form. It was something of a habit, he could always hear her after all.

Going down the hall Luz looked around for a door marked with a unique symbol on it, and from how fast she was going down the hall looking out for anything unusual it didn’t take her long to find a door marked with a blue bubble. Walking in with a grin she looked on surprised to find a mostly empty room save for the basic furniture of a bedroom and a shelf of human junk. Taking a step forward, Luz hummed in curiosity seeing that there was slime everywhere in the room. A remarkably thick blue substance with what seemed to be a mucus consistency giving the whole floor a soapy look to it. Just as she was bending down ready to pick it up and take a closer look at it, the slime started moving and concentrating around the center of the room transforming from the puddle of slime spread around the room to a boy.

As he was facing forward getting a good look at Luz, he gasped after getting a good look at her.

“Are you a human?! A real human?!” he said, getting only close enough to keep a sense of personal space.  
“Yep. I’m a human. That’s me, Luz the human.” Luz said with a tone of joy, raising her index finger up and dragging it across with enthusiasm. It was quite a surprise to see someone with so much enthusiasm to see her just because she was herself.

“This is the best day, of my life. Did Eda bring you here?” Gus said.

“No. She did let me into her house. I actually followed this cute little owl, seemed to be a smart one too.” Luz said.

“Owlbert led you here?” Gus said, remembering how he had led all three of them to the Owl House when they needed a place to stay after what had happened to them but then. Was it possible for humans to be cursed? Likely one of those many qualities Gus hadn’t been privy to until he had met one in person.

“Owlbert? Oh, that’s a cute name.” Luz said with a coo in her voice.

“Did you already meet everyone else in the house?” Gus asked.

“This house, it’s so much bigger on the inside and meeting Willow then you. I also met King, the little precious bone puppy in the living room.” Luz said.

“King is actually a demon, really small, energetic demon. You haven’t met Amity, have you?” Gus said.

“Amity? No. No one’s mentioned her. Is she along this hall too?” Luz said.

“Her room’s on the second floor actually, but you should really settle in before you meet her. She’s the most recent roommate of us three, and she’s really hard to get along with.” Gus said.

Just as Gus had been pointing up to indicate Amity’s room being upstairs, Luz seemed to be backing out and getting out of the room to rush off and meet such a new friend. 

“If Eda comes around, could you let her know I’ll catch up with you guys later?” Luz said.

“Sure,” Gus said with a bit of hesitation, wondering why she was so willing to go running off and try to get to know Amity.

“Alright, gotta find one of those symbols,” Luz said to herself as she made her way up the stairs.

Having followed behind after returning the tea tray to the kitchen, Willow walked in to find Gus reformed into his witch form in his room.

“Hey Gus, how did you like meeting Luz?” Willow asked.

“It was awesome! This is the best day of my life! I’m so glad Owlbert showed her the way here. I have so many questions once she comes back from Amity’s room.” Gus said.

“She went to go see Amity?” Willow asked rather surprised.

“Yeah I tried to tell her she’s not the friendliest person, but Luz was pretty set on going to meet her,” Gus said.

Willow frowned and clenched her fist apprehensively thinking about what it would be like for Luz to meet Amity, and that was all before thinking about what it would be like when Luz would find out about Amity’s curse. Which once she got into that train of thought she continued on with a realization.

“Gus, what day is it?” Willow said.

“It’s. Oh no! We need to go get Eda.” Gus said.

Back on the second floor of the Owl House, Luz had come upon a door marked with the symbol of a dragon’s tail. Taking a close examination of the symbol Luz could see the tail was slick and green. Remembering back to the way Willow’s and Gus’ room symbols connected to them, Luz wondered if Amity had some reptile qualities of her own. Willow and Gus themselves went to find Eda who by that point was at the couch finishing the tea she had brewed.

“Um, Eda. There’s a problem, Luz just went to go see Amity and, we, just remembered she’s stuck in dragon form today.” Willow said.

Eda got up from the couch and widened her eyes in concern, reaching over to grab her staff before rushing off up the stairs trying to hold Luz back. Now regretting not staying around as Luz started exploring.

Rushing up the stairs, she clenched her teeth seeing Luz already walking into Amity’s room. Trying to shout a warning to Luz only to be smacked by the door from Luz swinging it closed in her enthusiasm.

Luz looked around to find the whole room to be a strange contrast before her was a series of elevated rocks large enough to hold a few people even to lay down on. Hiding a few corners and on the far side of them was a stained glass window and a ledge to sit down on as well as a desk and small shelf of books.

Looking back up, Luz could see on one of the top rocks there was a tail of green scales dangling. Having Amity in sight she started climbing up the rocks, requiring a decent amount of maneuvering on her part but once she got to the top she was met with a rather worrying sight.

On the top stone was a roughly human-sized green-scaled dragon curled in on herself, wings folded in rising and falling steadily as the rest of her body did, her head sharp at the snout but otherwise was smooth.

Luz nervously started to lower herself down only to brush up against the rock making a few pebbles slip off. 

Amity stirred and when she snapped out of her stupor she looked up to see Luz, beginning to growl she raised herself up on her feet crouching down ready to pounce on Luz while she was paralyzed with fear.

Luz shrieked as the dragon pinned her down on the rock she had been climbing onto, struggling out of her grip and trying to push her away by resisting against her legs pushing down. Luz looked into the yellow eyes with terror, Amity was as big as her but crouched down in dragon form it was like facing against a winged alligator. It was when the dragon roared and flared her wings up when Luz got the chance to push her claws off and keep moving. Lowering herself onto the next rock, but Amity recovered rather quickly and launched herself in flight against Luz in anger over the intruder in her territory.

Amity’s speed caused her impact with Luz to be a rather rough fall behind the rocks. Despite the shock of the fall, Luz continued to resist Amity pinning her down to the ground looking around trying to figure out a way to escape her when she noticed the collection of volcanic ash in the silver holder nearby. Taking another look at Amity, Luz saw that some of her scales at the base near her underbelly were brown as opposed to the rest of her green scales. 

Luz braced herself, reaching over and scooping a bit of the ash wincing from the overwhelming burning feeling and letting Amity clench her claws around her arm to press it up against her scales.

Amity relaxed as soon as the warm ash met her more sensitive scales, loosening her grip on Luz and purring as she settled into her napping posture once again. In this position, Luz started rubbing off the rest of the volcanic ash onto Amity on her thicker scales. Clenching her fist to deal with the feeling of the lingering burn left on her.

Yet, even in her pain and having recovered from great terror Luz looked upon the dragon sleeping on her and saw she was at peace and at rest. Knowing that within her was a girl, cursed and she being cursed as well she knew that when the beast overtook one there were little of them still acting willingly. Luz in her ever affectionate heart hugged the dragon and shared in its calmness, already finding Amity to be cute in such a form Luz wondered what the witch truly looked like.

By the time Eda woke up she jolted up in a panic and rushed into Amity’s room, seeing no one at first she ran behind the rocks and there saw Luz resting calmly with Amity in her dragon form above her.

“Luz, are you alright?” Eda asked only for Luz to gently shush her.

Understanding the situation, Eda calmed down nodding in compliance with Luz glad to see she had been alright. Backing up she closed the door gently on them and went downstairs to see Gus and Willow making their way up worried after the amount of time that had passed without seeing Eda come back with Luz.

“Is Luz alright?” Willow asked.

“Did Amity eat her?” Gus said, much more frantic and concerned with the more concerning possibility.

“She’s alright. Luz seems to know how to handle Amity well enough. Somehow.” Eda said, partially amused and confused over how Luz was able to tame the most cursed of her wards.

“We’ll settle her in tomorrow morning, but for now she’s fine where she is,” Eda said.

Eda walked off, set on making sure King wouldn’t get into trouble before going to bed for the night.

Willow lowered her gaze, thinking and wondering how it was Luz could get along with Amity. When she was in her most bestial and aggressive form. Was she really not as good of a friend with Amity as she thought, or was she just wrong to hold the grudge for turning away from her once Amity came to the Owl House too?

“Hey, are you Ok?” Gus asked, noticing Willow was distressed and knowing it well from past experience.

“Yeah, I’m Ok.” Willow lied.

The next morning Luz woke up to see Amity in her true form, and she was still face to face with her. Sharp featured but with such round eyes that Luz felt was right for Amity. Despite her elegance as the true witch she was there was still the powerful dragon within her. 

Luz was nervous as Amity started to wake up, wondering whether she would remember anything from what happened when she was in dragon form. She certainly hoped so but lost hope as Amity’s oh so familiar golden eyes filled with shock and a bit of fear after seeing Luz.

Amity pushed herself off Luz and backed up against the rock, drawing a circle in the air that created a glowing pink ring.

“Who are you?! What are you doing in my room?!” Amity cried out.

Luz raised her hands up trying to show no ill will to Amity especially as she seemed to be preparing some form of magic to retaliate against her.

“It’s Ok, I’m not here to hurt you. I’m Luz, I just wanted to meet you and happened to meet you when you were. Well, scaly.” Luz said, joking a bit trying to deal with the tension.

Amity put her hand down and dispelled her magic, taking a good look at Luz she had listened to Gus fine enough to know a human when she saw one. The lack of magic made Amity feel less threatened, and Luz seemed sincere. Still, Amity had so many questions and so many concerns once she started piecing together what happened.

“Look, I’m sorry for. Whatever I did in my dragon form, but, I was in my dragon form. Did you just barge in here without me giving you permission?” Amity accused.

Luz found herself hesitating, realizing she had barged in without knocking and without waiting on Gus. Willow or Amity to give her permission to enter.

“I did. I’m sorry.” Luz apologized.  
Looking down in shame, realizing she was so caught up in having a safe refuge, wanting to make friends and being pulled into a world of magic that her sense of manners seemed to have gone right out the window. Even not taking into account the young witches Luz had gone about snooping through Eda’s home.

Amity looked quite angry when her thoughts had been confirmed by Luz.

“What were you thinking? You could have gotten hurt. How did you manage to get through a whole night with me?” Amity said.

“The hot ashes there. I grabbed some and rubbed them against your brown scales, it calmed you down.” Luz said.

Amity’s anger seemed to calm as she looked at Luz with sympathy and held her hand out.

“Let me see. I might be able to heal the burn.” Amity said.

Luz felt a warmness within her, Amity had just been so angry with her and now she was so quick to help her. Holding her arm out she let Amity take her hand and take a close look at her index finger and middle finger. Amity examined the burns and frowned at the black burns and small blisters Luz had sustained.

“Healing magic isn’t exactly my specialty, but I should be able to fix this,” Amity said, drawing a golden circle over Luz’s burnt fingers. 

A golden glow enveloped the burn marks on Luz’s fingers, making Luz look on mouth open and her eyes filled with wonder expecting to feel something as the healing magic repaired the damage of the burn. All she felt was the lingering pain of the burns disappearing when the magic had done its work.

“Wow!” Luz cried out in excitement while looking at her fingers amazed at how they were good as new.

“Thank you,” Luz said gratefully, hugging Amity hoping to really express her thankfulness.

“You’re welcome, it’s nothing, really,” Amity said, overwhelmed by the amount of emotion Luz was showing and uncomfortable with Luz suddenly springing a hug on her.

Looking at Luz’s torn up clothes Amity waited for Luz to pull away before getting up and gesturing to Luz to do the same.

“Your clothes, did I do this?” Amity said.

“Oh no, this was from before I got here,” Luz said.

Amity realized that if Luz was in the Owl House she had to have been found and led by Owlbert just like the rest of them had been, and had much more sympathy for Luz because of that.

“You look like you’re about my size if not a proper match. I’ll let you borrow some of my clothes, Eda should be able to help fix yours.” Amity said.

Just a few years ago Eda certainly wouldn’t have been practiced with any kind of sewing or weaving magic but after a few years of taking care of the trio, she had a good sense for it.

“That would be really cool. Thanks.” Luz said and followed Amity to the corner with her bed, desk, shelves, and proper living space to the closet and drawers.

Looking through Amity’s wardrobe, Luz saw a few pink leggings, black skirts, and at one point Luz was quite ready to grab a black top with a cloak placed above it until Amity stopped her. 

“Oh, no. Not that one. That’s a school uniform actually.” Amity said.

“School uniform? You have a magic school?” Luz said.

“Yes, Hexside.” Amity said.

“Could you show me?” Luz said.

“We’ll talk about it later,” Amity said.

Eventually, Luz settled on borrowing a lilac sweater and black leggings from Amity.

In the kitchen Gus and Willow were eating while Eda was finishing up her Apple Blood, seeing the two kids rather anxious about Luz being alone with Amity she tried to reassure them.

“Don’t worry so much you two. Luz can handle Amity in her dragon form, her true self will be no problem.” Eda said.  
“Sometimes I would prefer the dragon over Amity herself,” Gus mumbled.

Hearing footsteps coming from the stairs the trio looked to see Amity and Luz walking in, and for Willow the sight of Luz borrowing Amity’s clothes was rather disheartening. It was something she could only imagine asking of Amity years ago, but now. She wondered what it was about Luz that made her so capable of dealing with her icy roommate.

“Eda, Luz’s clothes need some repairs,” Amity said as she handed Eda the torn up clothes.

“I’ll have him fixed by the afternoon. Now sit down you two, time to eat your breakfast,” she said.

Luz and Amity sat down to just that. Eda wasn’t much of a talker in the mornings but among the kids the situation was just tense. Amity being her standoffish self when it came to Gus and Willow but they had so many questions for Luz about what happened with Amity last night they knew better than to ask while she herself was there. Even Luz felt how awkward the moment was and found herself suffocated by it.

Once everyone finished up their breakfast Eda called out to Luz.

“Luz, sit down for a moment. I need to talk to you about something.” 

Luz sat down nervous over what Eda had to say to her.

“If this is about what happened with Amity, or just going around the house, in general, I’m really sorry.” she apologized.

“No, that’s got nothing to do with this. Trust me, you’re not in trouble kid.” Eda reassured her. Looking to make sure Luz relaxed before continuing. 

“I know this is all new to you so I’ll tell you right now, the power Willow, Gus, and Amity have to transform. That’s not normal for witches. We’re all unique in the sense we’re cursed with our forms. The kids can willingly transform most of the time, but some days it happens against their will and they lose control and their reason. Owlbert scouts the human world for whatever treasures he can find, but he also looks out for anyone who is cursed like us and brings them here. Where they’ll be safe and find solidarity with people who share their curse. He led you here just like he led your friends here when they discovered they were cursed and needed to leave their homes. You’re the first human to be cursed like this. Luz, I need to know what your curse is so I can help you.” she said.  
Luz frowned, holding her left arm as she came to grips with the reality at hand. The nature of hers she wanted to keep a secret she had to be honest about if she wanted any kind of help.

“Lycanthropy,” she said.

“Werewolf, huh? Ok. I’ll put you in one of the rooms without any windows and I’ll find some extra clothes for you.” Eda said.

Luz smiled, looking gratefully at Eda knowing she would put in the preventive measures she needed to not hurt others with her curse.

“The others won’t pry into what your curse is, they can probably make a good guess when they see the symbol that’s going to go on your door but they’re not going to ask you about the details. I won’t make you tell them either, but try to trust them as soon as you can. They can’t help you if they don’t know.” Eda said.

Luz nodded in agreement, putting Eda at ease as she went to go get Luz’s room ready.

Luz that morning was now at peace, she had found the calm in the storm. A safe home for her where her curse wouldn’t catch up to her. A good group of friends and a caretaker who seemed experienced in what she was doing, the fact she was in a land of magic gave her hope that she could be cured. She sincerely hoped that in time her friends could be cured too.


	2. Settling In

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With much chaos having happened on Luz's arrival, she now starts to settle in and bond more with her new friends.

Walking out of the kitchen, Luz stopped when she suddenly heard a loud voice calling for her attention.

“Hey! New Minion!”

She looked around for a moment, but the individual calling out for her seemed to get impatient rather quickly as just a moment after he called out.

“Down here!”

Looking down Luz saw that it was King now awake and demanding to be seen, up and about Luz found him all the more adorable. His big round eyes like a fluffy animal under the skull that should have been morbid were it not for the fact it fit him like a perfect little hat. The collar around his neck gave him more of that sense of being like a little puppy.  
“Aww! Does King want some attention?” Luz said affectionately while reaching down to scratch his chin.

“Nyeh!” King cried out as he swatted Luz’s hand away.

“No! Your overlord demands you follow orders! New minion, your master is hungry. I’ll need some snacks fast.” King said.

Luz giggled over just how amusing King was, acting in a way that he really lived up to his name.

“Do you have any favorites?” she asked.

Despite how demanding King was being of her, Luz wasn’t going to be denying him some tasty treats. Besides, it was like being around a demanding little kitty. Hard to get mad even if they were being a little scamp.

“Some nice salty chips should do it. Now go! Onward to the kitchen!” King said, pointing to where Luz had just walked out from.

Luz made a quick search of the kitchen, looking out for any snacks, and taking a look into the cabinets she found a bag of potato chips. Flavored in the kind of salt that King had asked for Luz walked out handing them over to King.

“Excellent! You have done well, minion! I will remember to be merciful, and maybe even reward you.” King said as he opened up the bag and munched on the first chip.

“Here, you may share in the spoils,” King said, giving Luz some chips.

“Aww. Thanks,” Luz said, grinning widely over King being so happy to enjoy his snacks and wanting to share with her. So, she was soon munching down on chips of tasty goodness with the little demon.

“I’m Luz. Eda already told me about you, King.” Luz said, introducing herself.

“I see the word of me is told to new arrivals quickly here. Welcome to the ranks under the most powerful demon to ever live, Luz.” King said.

Meanwhile, Willow had gone about watering her plants and keeping an eye on any that might need additional food, soil, or fertilizer. Taking special care to pay attention and listen to them. Though, as Willow always took care to do this she was usually much warmer and open to hearing her plants speak to her. Given she was trying to distract herself, Willow approached the task like work, and the plants were made uncomfortable by it. Their communication with Willow was much more clinical or blunt. Willow could have gone on just like that the whole morning had Audrey not seemed outright bored by the check-up. Noticing that was off, Willow looked around and became much more conscious of her behavior at that point.

Hearing a knock at the door, Willow paused with casting her water spells and walked over to let in her visitor.

“Hey Gus,” she said as the boy made his way in.

“Hey. You good? You’re looking like you’re stuck in a trance,” Gus said.

“Yes. I’m fine,” Willow said a little harshly.

Frowning, Gus sat down with an insistence that Willow do the same.

“Come on, I know when you’re not alright. You can talk to me, Willow,” Gus said, trying to reassure his friend of that fact.

Willow sighed, stopping to think to really explain to Gus what had gotten into her head and was missing with how she was doing.

“It’s just. I don’t get it. Any of what happened between Amity and Luz. We thought Luz would have to survive being around Amity. Then she shows up having borrowed some of her clothes, her favorite sweater. How does Luz just become friends with Amity who still doesn’t hang out with us.” Willow said.

“I kind of been thinking about it since breakfast this morning. Luz is in her own world, she doesn’t follow the same rules. She decided she was going to be friends with us, and now. She is. Even with Amity, and I think we haven’t been fair to her. She’s been living with us for a few months, and we act like things have been the same as when she first got here.” Gus said.

“She sure acts like nothing’s changed. Especially at school.” Willow said.

“Maybe we should go by Luz’s example and open up a bit more to Amity,” Gus said.

“It’s hard Gus. It’s hard to just do that, forgive her and move on when she hasn’t apologized or done anything to make up for the way she acted in the past. The way she treated us.” Willow said.

Gus paused when hearing Willow said that. He remembered just about a year ago when they were attending Hexside, having to live with their curse and then there was Amity. Among the main group of girls who found it fun to bully them over their curse, Willow for her lackluster ability in most forms of magic and Gus for his perceived maturity despite keeping up just fine in class with them. He knew that Willow had a longer history with Amity, the friendship that was abandoned over Willow not keeping up with Amity’s magical development. Except, at that point, it seemed much more unhealthy to Gus for Willow to hold on to something that was a much more distant memory.

“I know. It still hurts remembering Amity there every time with those other girls, and the kind of things she’d say but we live with her now. She’s in our boat with us.” Gus said.

“So you want to make sure we’re all rowing together?” Willow said.

“Yeah. We’re all going to be better off that way.” Gus said.

Willow looked up at the second floor, thinking about Amity. Trying to imagine what it would be like if they were a proper group, supporting one another. A group of friends.

“Hey, what’s that?” Willow asked, looking at the little stack of notes that Gus was holding.

“Since we now have a real human living with us I pulled out all the questions I’ve ever wanted to ask a primary source. I came over because I wanted to know if you have any questions that you wanted to ask.” Gus said.

Willow realized that her encouragement of his hobby must have seemed pretty akin to the type of interest of all things human that he had. Admittedly she regarded humans in the novel manner that most witches did but she wanted to get to know Luz as she would want to get to know any friend better.

“Actually, wait for her to get settled in before asking questions but I do want to ask Luz a few questions myself,” Willow said.

“Great!” Gus said with much enthusiasm.

Eda came down holding Luz’s clothes now repaired and patched up, arriving downstairs to find King enjoying a bag of chips with Luz she stayed back to listen to what he was saying to her.

“So, what brings you here?” King said.

“Oh, I was led here by Owlbert. I think he knew I needed to be here for a safe place to stay because of what happened back home.” Luz said.

“You’re another kid with a curse Eda has taken in?” King said.

Luz nodded, confirming that assumption.

“What’s your curse?” King asked.

Luz rubbed her neck, still feeling uncomfortable with what happened to her. Though very much going about accepting it as normal.

“Turning into a werewolf,” she said.

“How wonderful! A mighty werewolf has joined my command.” King said with an enthusiasm that surprised Luz.

“We talked about the issue of child soldiers, King. You’re not cut out for that kind of work.” Eda said, a joking tone to her voice as such a subject had never been covered seriously by them.

“My new minion doesn’t need training. She’s already perfect for the tasks I shall appoint.” King said.

“That’s true, as long as grabbing chips is the only task you plan to appoint,” Eda said, smirking over how won over Luz had been by the cute factor.

“Luz I’ve got your clothes here,” Eda said, holding out the repaired outfit to Luz.

“Thanks,” Luz said, taking her clothes. Looking most fondly on her cat-eared hoodie.

“That outfit works for you too. It’d be a good idea for you to keep raiding Amity’s wardrobe.” Eda said.

Luz chuckled as she took a look at the sweater she was wearing again, rather tempted by the suggestion.

“Speaking of which, I should probably give this back to her,” Luz said.

Just as Luz was climbing up the stairs, Eda called out to her new ward.

“Your room’s on the left side of the hall. Look for the paw symbol,” she said.

Luz looked back giving Eda a quick nod before going off to change and get Amity back her outfit.

Now having changed into her now repaired clothes, Luz walked over and knocked on Amity’s door staying back and waiting for a response.

“Who is it?” Amity said.

“Hey Amity, it’s me, Luz,” she said.

After a pause, Luz heard Amity call back to her.

“Come in.”

Luz walked inside looking to see Amity studying at her desk, book open on her desk while taking notes.

“Eda got my clothes fixed, so, here’s your clothes back,” Luz said.

Amity put down her pencil to look to Luz, now in her own clothes which just seemed to suit her much better. With Luz setting her clothes down on her bed, Amity nodded to acknowledge the act.

“Thank you,” she said.

“So, whatcha reading?” Luz asked, going over next to Amity’s desk trying to take a look at the book she was studying.

Amity stopped in the middle of the notes she was writing, surprised over Luz’s interest in her school books but it dawned upon her how magic, in general, must be novel for a human even if she did have the misfortune of being cursed. Raising up her book for Luz to be able to see the cover, Amity waited for her to take it in properly before getting back to her notes.

‘Abomination Manufactorum 101’

“Abomination? Manufactorum? What’s all that about?” Luz asked.

“It’s a recent edition, but the publishers like to keep the old names. Manufactorum just means manufacturing. It’s just Making Abominations 101 if you take the title literally.” Amity said.

“Abominations? That’s a form of magic? How do you use it?” Luz said.

Amity finished up the last sentence she had been working on before pulling a massive pot out from a workbench she had next to her closet and moving it closer.

“It’s my track in magic at Hexside,” Amity said, clearing her throat before issuing her command.

“Abomination, rise.”

With a groan, a large mass of a thick purple substance gathered together and rose up pushing aside the cover over the pot.

“Oh, cool. What can you make it do?” Luz said, already looking quite impressed.

Amity took a moment to think about what would impress Luz.

“Abomination, dance,” she ordered.

Letting out a sound of low wailing, the abomination raised its arms up moving about side to side before more smoothly raising one arm waving it about side to side and making a twirl around.

“Hey! I think I know this one.” Luz said with excitement as she moved next to the abomination like an additional dancer.

“Know this dance?” Amity asked confused wondering what Luz could even know to replicate a dance her abomination seemed to just improvise. Unless the human world was just that strange that their dance was rigid and awkward itself.

Luz raised both arms to one side by stiffening them up like a corpse and moved in tune with the abomination. Though she was much smoother in moving herself on her feet twirling from one side to the other despite making her best zombie impression. Though as opposed to following suit with the abomination, Luz seemed to overtake the dance order and had the abomination follow her lead. Marching in place before looking to make a twitch of the shoulder, and from there dance the rest of the Thriller routine that the abomination seemed to be able to replicate a lot more smoothly through mirroring.

“How did you do that?” Amity asked.

“Well, practice. Persistence in making a music video tribute, and really trying to get a crowd to start a flash mob.” Luz said.

Amity had a couple of questions as to how those specific situations came up but she shook her head before clarifying what she meant to address her immediate concern.

“No, I mean getting the abomination to copy your moves perfectly. Even matching how smooth you move by the end. Breaking that stiff quality they have to them.” Amity said.

To illustrate her point, Amity tried getting in front of her abomination and raising her arm up before waving it around a little only for it to stay slumped looking on at its creator awaiting an order.

“Abomination, mimic,” Amity said.

Performing the same gesture and to emphasize the point moved her hand around in a circular motion in a quick move that the abomination was only able to replicate in a stiff and heavy manner.

Amity then instructed the abomination to go back into the pot before looking to Luz expecting to hear some kind of theory from her.

“Well, the thing about dancing. You just fall into the rhythm of it, and let the groove move you. It’s not something that you’re really thinking about.” Luz said.

Amity frowned, not sharing the sentiment especially as she remembered Edric and Emira being drilled on their parent’s request in traditional gala dances were the event to ever come up which was very much expected. Thus the insistence it be committed to muscle memory. Amity was to learn soon herself before her curse came to light.

“That’s, not really how it works. You have to at least learn the routine, it doesn’t just come to you.” Amity said, illustrating her point by performing a few steps of a solo dance which ended with a twirl and a bow. A dance she was taught with the expectation she would know how to navigate a dance floor among a large gathering of nobles.

“Hey, that was pretty cool,” Luz said before starting to try to replicate the steps only to almost trip over herself.

Amity covered her mouth as a chuckle came out rather stifled, and she was still grinning when Luz herself was chuckling over her awkward footwork with what was considered the fancier dance.

“You don’t have to turn yourself with your legs still crossed over each other. This mostly depends on which direction you’re already moving in the first place, but keep that direction in mind and right yourself by moving that leg out. Sliding yourself over into that new place, and doing the steps again.” Amity said. Demonstrating her point by moving herself over to her right after sweeping her right leg out.

“Thanks. This works a lot better. Where did you learn this?” Luz said.

“Family tutor. I’d call them governess, but they weren’t exactly live in.” Amity said.

“Governess, that’s really fancy. Were you a princess?” Luz said.

“No. It wasn’t like that. My parents are really rich, more like nobles if I was going to give you an idea of what my life was like.” Amity said.

Luz frowned, figuring out by that point all of them living with Eda had left their home because of what living with their curse meant. Yet there Amity was, having fallen from what must have been pretty high status still studying and advancing in the use of her magic.

“That dance you were doing with the abomination, where did you learn it?” Amity said.

“Oh that. I like to call it the Thrill dance. It’s from this pretty old music video, great for when Halloween comes around.” Luz said as she took out her phone.

Luz cleared away the notifications of messages and missed calls, a pang out of guilt and sadness doing so. The way they had clustered up to show only the number as opposed to her mother’s words made it only a little easier. When she first arrived, Luz wondered why it was that the Boiling Isles just had to have some kind of force that was still allowing her to have reception but now she was quite glad as she sat down close to Amity pulling up the music video for Thriller to show to her.

Amity looked at Luz’s phone as the video loaded up, already noting the similarities to the magically summoned scroll phone of hers and just about every other witch her age. For a time she wondered if humans or witches came up with the idea first but Gus could attest humans had been working on a device just called phones for years and they were much more different and bulky than what became common for witches to use.

The shape sure made things a lot better considering the rounded form of crystal bells that made watching anything awkward considering the round shape could squish the edges together. How it resembled an eye shape could be argued by everyone, it still made the view awkward as it was ultimately in one’s field of vision.

Watching the video, Amity got a sense of what Gus seemed to appreciate about humans. Despite the opening segway into the musical portion being awkward, there was a clear creative take to the monsters. There was no need for them to follow the rules that witches knew to be part of their world and could learn about. Often a specialty field of the Beastiary Coven. Thinking about the video, Amity got the basic sense that there wasn’t as much thought put into the story as the song and dance that had a passion to it really suited for the Halloween season. Which on its own was a well put together project, but Amity couldn’t help think about the girl being terrorized by everything that was happening to her. Not to mention where the line was that one could still be scared, and not simply rather stressed and confused by a performance of the undead presented before someone. Particularly for a human with no sense of being on the defense from it the whole time. By the end, Amity’s confusion overtook the appreciation of the art itself with the main takeaway from it being remembering the way that Luz had been dancing and the means of which she had replicated it.

“It was pretty weird but you had to have still practiced the dance, at least paid close attention to get everything right,” Amity said.

“I did take a close look at the video but learning how to dance I nailed it fast,” Luz said, performing some of the moves again.

“Are zombies really like that?” Luz asked.

“Zombies are an illegal form of magic, so there’s very little we actually know about them and what we do know is very vague. They’re like if humans were made to be like and act like abominations, but no one knows how to make a human into a zombie anymore.” Amity said.

Luz winced, leaving the subject at that getting the sense that something pretty horrifying had to have happened to make sure that magic had been forgotten and that if someone got a hold of the knowledge again it would be pretty awful.

“Is there anyone who still casts magic on humans?” Luz said.

“Not that we know of, even Eda just sends Owlbert to find stuff from there. Most witches just like living here at home than visiting the human world, they don’t really have a reason to go there. Also, the Emperor does everything possible to make sure we don’t cause trouble there. You can’t blame a creature for walking on over to the human world so that’s why you see them running around your world than any of us witches.” Amity said.

“So, it’s someone that would be a secret? Some mystery person the no one really knows about to be the kind of witch casting curses in the human world?” Luz said.

Amity nodded.

“I’m sorry Luz, I wish we knew who cast these curses on us,” Amity said.

She could tell Luz had been motivated by curiosity if they had some kind of culprit in mind considering their shared circumstances. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case or they would have figured out who had been the curse caster after all the time they had spent adjusting to their new life. Trying to understand the magic affecting them, knowing who the person behind it was might have gone a long way.

“Have you all been cursed for a while? Is there some kind of cure for this curse?” Luz said.

“Gus and Willow have had their curse for a few years, and I’ve been dealing with it just for the past few months now. Eda has been dealing with it for the longest, it’s been years for her. She has her elixir she takes almost every day. Gus and Willow can control their transformations, most of the time I can too. Yesterday was only the second time I lost control.” Amity said.

“So it’s like a cycle that this happens in?” Luz said.

“I don’t know. I hope it’s not like Eda’s curse, it just keeps getting worse but she has her elixirs for treating it.” Amity said.

“Eda, she’s cursed too?” Luz said.

“Yeah, hence everyone calls her the Owl Lady,” Amity said.

“What about the elixir? Does it work for the curse in general?” Luz said.

“Eda’s specialty is potions so she’s looking into something being able to work for me too, but for now she’s really the only one who needs the medicine. If you have a curse similar enough I’m sure she can try to make it work for you too.” Amity said.

“Well, my curse. Is that I’m a werewolf now.” Luz said.

“A werewolf. You have something to cover yourself up from moonbeams, don’t you?” Amity said.

Luz pulled her hoodie up to show what was pretty much the best she was working with.

“You’re not really prepared for any of this, are you?” Amity said.

Luz shook her head in shame as Amity was now looking at her with scrutiny, her tone had a sharpness to it carrying the judgment of how it was that Luz had gone off and been so unprepared for the big change in her life that had come upon her. All she could expect was that Luz would shape up and be much more ready in the future.

Amity looked back in her closet, it couldn’t hurt if Luz had something proper on standby during a full moon.

“Look, the next full moon is going to be in just a few days and we don’t exactly clothes shop that often. So you need, just something to be ready while you get your own set of full cover clothes from the moon.” Amity said.

Now handing Luz over a body covering cloak, gloves, and even a veil to be prepared for the next time that the full moon would rise putting Luz at risk of her curse. Amity crossed her arms expecting Luz to be responsible when it came to handling herself.

“There, now you could even go about like normal in the human world if you want,” Amity said.

“I. Don’t really think that’s an option for me until after this curse is broken. I know mom is looking for me, but I want to be able to go back as her daughter.” Luz said.

The memory of her mother frightened by her werewolf from being something she never would forget and hoped that would never have to be relived.

Amity noted the way Luz had said that and looked out the window, understanding Luz in what she went through but not wanting to open up about her former life. It had already been so complicated with her parents but being cursed. She couldn’t handle being forced to hide away and be seen as little as possible despite still being their daughter in every other way. Edric and Emira had been surprisingly supportive of her. Though it could only do so much when only they acted like everything was still normal. Especially when keeping things normal meant causing trouble she was less in a position to reign them in from.

“I get it. I hope you find your cure then.” Amity said.

Luz looked to Amity, who was still staring out at the window and scowling over the memories that had allowed her to empathize with Luz.

Seeing Amity in a state of self-introspection, Luz took a few steps away finding it best to leave her friend to the task.

“Well, thanks Amity. Let’s hang out later, you could teach your abomination some other dance moves.” Luz said. Scooping up the borrowed clothing and heading out.

“Bye Luz,” Amity said, still thinking about her past to the point she went back to thinking about what Lilith had offered her. Though she then looked to the covered cauldron, surely it couldn’t hurt to teach the abomination some tricks to make the whole display more impressive. Whether she had the time to bring Luz back in was another matter, it would be more worth it to dazzle the class with something no one would have any idea was possible. Not even Gus was that knowledgable of human culture.

Having gone back to her room, Luz had put away the full covering clothes that Amity had given her and remembered how Eda had told her about how admitting the true nature of her curse to her friends would mean being able to better help her. A point that was already made clear by Amity giving her some clothes that would cover her up from the moon and keep her from becoming such a monster.

She wondered what Willow and Gus might be able to do, Amity seemed to be such a quick study but then again she obviously seemed to have a specialty in making and ordering around the weird goopy abominations. It was a safe assumption that Gus and Willow studied other areas of magic more intently.

Looking for her two other friends, Luz found Gus and Willow in the living room rolling a couple of dice. Gus had just rolled a pair of green ones landing on the one dotted sides totaling the roll of two while Willow had rolled a pair of orange ones with one showing the six dot side and the other showing a four.

From Willow’s orange dice ten chimeras rose up from each dot, roaring as a pair of serpent eyes rose up from Gus’ green ones.

“Basilisk eyes!” Gus declared triumphantly, raising his fist in the air.

The chimeras were all paralyzed under the gaze of the floating eyes, and Gus soon grabbed his dice again.

“There’s not a good chance you’ll roll higher than ten.” Willow teased as Gus trapped the dice in his hands to roll again.

“Whatcha guys playing? Do the dice have actual small creatures in them?” Luz said.

Willow chuckled moreso from the second question and imagining how awkward the game would be if they were shaking around tiny creatures inside the dice.

“Hey, Luz. We’re playing Beast Dice, and no. There are no tiny animals being shaken around here.” Willow said.

“You just take a pair of dice, the color usually shows what beasts you’re going to be playing with. It’s pretty simple most of the time. Rolling a higher number means you have more creatures to beat your opponents with. The fun part is when you get the rolls that activate the special abilities. Like how I rolled snake eyes that let my basilisks paralyze Willow’s chimeras until the next roll.” Gus said.

“Now he just has to roll higher than the ten chimeras I rolled to win,” Willow said, immediately then winking at Luz to show how confident she was that wasn’t going to happen.

Gus ran the dice along his hands a few times, huffing into his enclosed palms hoping that some trick of good luck would favor him and win him the next roll.

Only, once he rolled the dice the pair had one land up with three dots and the other with two. Gus winced even as the basilisks bit into five of the paralyzed chimeras. Covering his eyes as the other five chimeras roared with an accompanying breath of fire from the goat’s head before chomping into the basilisks.

“Can I play?” Luz asked, looking absolutely captivated by the game.

“Sure, just pick your dice,” Gus said, handing her a bag of dice with several pairs coming in a different color.

As soon as Luz picked and took out the pair of purple dice, Willow smiled and said.

“That’s a good pick, the unicorns have some of the best rolls.”

Luz got to see exactly what Willow meant throughout the game consisting of a few rounds between them. Rolling a perfect twelve resulted in the unicorns unleashing a massive magic storm that first seemed like dust but then fizzled away to resemble something more like glitter. Eliminating just about every other roll but another twelve to which the unicorns had an advantage on and could defeat the next roll even if it was two units higher than her own. Rolling a six also made the unicorns more defensive, bunching up and setting up their horns to where one had to roll at least a ten to break.

With nothing being bet on the line, the trio continued playing until Willow and Gus had gotten bored and the novelty had at least worn off some for Luz.

“That was fun, but I’d really like to try the Griffon next time,” Luz said, remembering her art project from months ago and the excitement she had when researching the inspiration.

“Oh, those would be the pin ones,” Gus said, holding them out for Luz to hold and remember later.

After putting away the pink dice Luz took in a deep breath, having to bring up her curse to Gus and Willow. Something that kept her in surprise as it seemed oddly easier with Amity, maybe since their curses resembled one another’s so much more.

“Guys, I have to let you know what my curse is. I’m, a werewolf.” Luz said.

The pause was much longer for Luz who was holding her breath as she waited to see how Gus and Willow would react. While they had been listening to make sure that was all Luz would say to know that was all there was to it.

“Do you need our help handling it, Luz or do you have the important parts covered?” Willow said.

Luz calmed down, feeling a lot more glad that Gus and Willow were very much ready to help her.

“I actually do need some help, Amity gave me an outfit to cover up from a full moon but I was wondering if you guys had other ways to deal with being a werewolf,” Luz said.

“Some wolfsbane should help calm you down if you do transform,” Willow said.

“I think I have some silver around, and Eda definitely would,” Gus said.

“Thank you. You’re not planning on killing me with that silver, right?” Luz said.

“Oh no. It should just keep you trapped in your room.” Gus said.

“Ok, good,” Luz said.

The group then went about covering Luz’s room with silver and wolfsbane at the edges in the hope that Luz herself wouldn’t mind it but that it would mean having a good place to keep her in if she ever was transformed due to a rather unfortunate accident.


	3. Introductory Studies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Luz begins her journey of learning magic, a glimpse is provided into Gus, Willow's, and Amity's day to day life at Hexside.

The next morning the newfound family was gathered around the table, Luz was partaking in tasting some griffin eggs but given the taste wasn’t all that different from chicken eggs she had back home it was harder to realize. Had she known, Luz would have been very excited about the kind of meal that Eda had cooked up for her.

“Is breakfast time always this quiet?” Luz asked, looking around from having realized the awkwardness of having breakfast with the witches.

“Eda, needs her morning apple blood before she can start making small talk,” Gus said, coming up with a weak excuse.

Exactly for that reason, Eda raised her eyebrow at Gus in a sharp manner that seemed to just say. ‘Really?’ As although it was true that Eda didn’t feel up to doing much of anything in the morning until she had dragged herself over to having a decent amount of apple blood that didn’t excuse the fact that Willow and Gus were just fine talking when it was just the two of them but they had gone dead silent ever since Amity started joining them for breakfast to be around Luz.

“No, I actually don’t usually have breakfast with everyone else at the table. I wanted to change that habit.” Amity said.

Willow was most surprised by that revelation, Amity hadn’t tried to reach out and at least join them for a meal until Luz showed up. In a sense, Willow had been glad that Amity had stopped being so isolated even if she was hesitant to try to build up some kind of friendship again but the fact that it was for Luz’s sake was a bit disheartening as it drew upon those hurt feelings. Especially the regret of not forgiving Amity sooner.

“Your breakfast doesn’t have to be so somber because everyone in the house is now at the table. It should be even more lively, you guys should talk. See where your interests are in common.” Luz said, putting one arm on Willow’s shoulder and the other on Amity’s making each girl look. On one hand, feeling too awkward to look at the other, but also just the fluttering in their stomachs from Luz being casually familiar with them.

“Willow, you play Beast Dice. Amity, have you ever played Beast Dice? Willow and Gus introduced it to me yesterday. I’ve only been here for two days but it’s already my favorite game.” Luz said.

“Um. Yes, I usually pick the pink dice. The griffins.” Amity said.

Willow looked a little surprised at Amity, wondering if she had gone back to being rather sincere now that she had been ridiculed out of Boscha’s group now that she had taken over Amity’s old girl posse. As she couldn’t imagine Amity admitting to playing back then.

“They’ve got pigeon heads, right? They totally have the head of a pigeon.” Luz said.

Amity paused for a moment.

“Yes. Why would you think they wouldn’t? Most of our creatures are understood as legends by humans.” Amity said.

“Yeah, I know that but newer stories get it wrong. I’ve tried to tell people but most of them try to argue it’s the head of an eagle, not a pigeon.” Luz said. 

Everyone except for Eda seemed to wince when Luz mentioned eagle-headed griffins, Eda herself seemed to smirk like she was remembering a particularly morbid joke.

“We don’t talk about the, Eagle Heads,” Willow said. Quickly followed by a thousand-yard stare for a few seconds.

“It sounds like humans have a blurry understanding of our world just as much as we have a blurry understanding of theirs,” Gus said with delight to his tone, enjoying the revelation of the human’s perception of his culture. Another fascinating thing to think about and discuss with the other members of The Human Club.

“Well isn’t it obvious that’s going to happen with no culture expert clarifying the facts?” Amity said.

“Maybe, um, yes but it’s still bizarre how different the interpretation becomes from the original fact,” Gus said.

Luz couldn’t help but stifle a little laugh from hearing that, wondering if Gus would realize the irony of him asking her where her gills were. Amity, looking at Luz in confusion from having missed the humor behind it. Thus Luz gestured to Amity to come in closer before she whispered what had happened yesterday to her in explanation. Understanding the reason for Luz’s amusement then, Amity just laughed hoping Gus would realize the irony too. Looking over to see Willow feeling like she was missing out on an inside joke, Luz whispered the explanation to her too. Coaxing only a small chuckle, but the three girls were now laughing together much to Gus’ confusion.

“Um. Is there a human secret I’m being left out of finding out?” Gus asked, distressed at the idea given he was the one with the fixation on human understanding.

“You’re really smart Gus. You’ll figure it out soon.” Willow said encouragingly.

For most of the day, that would be what Gus would think about now that his curiosity was preoccupied with figuring out the secret joke he was not being made privy to. Though with breakfast having finished soon after that, Willow, Gus, and Amity were now off to further their studies at Hexside.

Luz waved at her friends as they did so in return, seeing them off for the time being and hoping to hear of something fun about their day when they’d come back. She then looked to Eda who was now properly dressed and holding her magical suitcase. It was now time for her to make her request. She had been building up hopes for the more and more time she spent around the witches.

“Eda, can you teach me magic, please? Be my mentor. I wanna be a witch like you guys.” Luz said.

Eda grinned, noting an opportunity she now had thanks to her new ward.

“So, you wanna be a witch and cast magic spells. Brew a potion or two judging by that glow on your face. The others have Hexside to provide their magical education, but being my personal apprentice isn’t going to come cheap.” Eda said, taking the moment to say the name Hexside with a clear sense of contempt.

“You’re not going to ask for my soul, are you? The commitment isn’t the hard part, but it might get boring for my soul.” Luz said, seeming to be unfazed by the prospect of turning over her immortal essence to Eda.

“What? Kid, the wanted poster is for thievery and other petty crimes. I’d have to build the house underground if I practiced any of that kind of magic.” Eda said.  
“Is that a kind of magic considered dark and forbidden?” Luz asked, excited to already be learning some of the deeper intricacies of magic.

“Yes, magic that even I don’t touch so you shouldn’t even be considering it,” Eda said.

“Don’t worry Eda, this curse is already bad enough. I won’t be dabbling into anything worse, or anything that could make this worse.” Luz said.

“You better be good on your word. You’re definitely on your own if you even think about dabbling in dark magic.” Eda said.

Eda sat down and started going over her conditions.

“If you want to learn magic then you need to agree to some extra labor. You already had a set of expectations when it came to the chores and just making sure this place stays liveable. So to start, you’ll have more chores. Second, you join me every workday at the Human Collectibles stand. You tell me how valuable each human treasure is so I can sell it ten times its value.” Eda said.

The prospect of Luz being an actual human around meant the value of what she was selling could be giving some credibility. Gus’ word only went so far, and Eda was frankly glad no one was able to look into what he considered facts more closely now that Luz was casually revealing how many common ideas when it came to humans held no water.

“If I’m going to be working a job with you at your stand, how about I show you how to upsell something fifteen times and the chore amount stays normal,” Luz said, wanting to see if she could impress Eda with some haggling.

“Kid, learn to haggle on the job. Frankly, you’re going to need the practice. For now, you’re not getting out of the work I set for you.” Eda said.

“What if my chores included. Taking care of King?” Luz said, grabbing King as he was passing by and started to cuddle up to him.

“No, I won’t have you roping me into this negotiation. You will never be a caretaker to me.” King said.

Eda laughed over Luz trying to negotiate with a task she was already planning to have her do.

“Making sure King doesn’t do anything reckless or get into trouble was already part of the expectations. You’ve got the spirit kid, but you’re going to need some actual experience to be able to negotiate with me.” Eda said.

“Aww, I can’t say no to making sure the little guy stays safe. El es tan lindo.” Luz said to the increasing annoyance of King who was now wriggling out of her grasp.

“I’ll start with the basics with you now. Work makes everyone exhausted and I can’t have a tired student, especially with the workload that’s going to go on your shoulders.” Eda said.

Eda then went off to grab a basic anatomy scroll on witches’ hearts she was going to use to make a point about the source of magic for witches.

“A lot of human’s understanding of magic is just as bad as our understanding of you humans in general. Most of them think magic comes from thin air, but that’s stupid. It all has to come from somewhere. Luz, where do you think magic comes from?” Eda said.

Luz hummed, trying to remember everything fantasy she had ever watched, seen, or read to give an answer on what she thought the answer to that was.

“From the heart?” she said with the same earnest spirit and sincerity she believed magic to come from.

Eda paused, realizing that Luz without any prior knowledge on witch anatomy hit the nail right on the head. Leaving her surprised at that moment.

“Actually, you’re right,” Eda said as she reached into her hair for a scroll. Leaving Luz in a moment of jubilation.

“All magic comes from a bile sac attached to a witches’ heart,” Eda said, opening up the scroll in hand to provide Luz the proper visual.

“Augh! Gross. Can I keep it?” Luz said.

“No,” Eda said, stuffing the scroll back into her hair a bit worried over what Luz would do with the scroll in light of her reaction.

“How can I, little old Luz learn to cast magic without a magic bile sac?” Luz said.

“I’m not actually sure. Considering you got stuck with a curse I actually entertained the thought over whether you’d be an exception, like one of those mutations you humans sometimes get stuck with.” Eda said.

“Wait, being cursed means I have magic?” Luz said in surprise.

“Yes. You see magic, when used on humans, can work in plenty of ways. Chuck a fireball or thunder spell at them and they’ll go down like a shattered abomination no problem. Give them a potion and they’ll react as planned since there’s a biological aspect they can react to that magic will actually bond to. Curses are different, you can’t really curse a human the way you can a witch. It’s inherently dark magic so there’s always a good kick of power behind it. If you wanna give a human bad luck their environment needs to be cursed to make everything that could go wrong around them guaranteed to go wrong. Except that doesn’t last long so most curse casters don’t bother. A witch on the other hand already has the inherent magic for the curse to bond with, the magic the witch is born with perpetuates the curse and sustains it. That curse would have never been possible to cast on you if you didn’t have any magic of your own.” Eda said.

Luz looked down, holding her head not sure what to think about that. The situation was inherently bittersweet, she dreamed of having some extraordinary ability. Turns out she always had it, and it took being cursed to be a werewolf to learn that. A curse her magic was now sustaining, and she couldn’t really cut herself off from that. Frankly, she wouldn’t in light of the new home she had found.

“Hey, kid. Don’t start frowning, you were just about ready to turn over your soul to learn magic and it’s just going to get boring once you get to the chores. So chin up already.” Eda said.

Luz looked at Eda again, nodding as she regained her determination. Taking out her phone Luz set it to record as Eda continued on with the lesson.

“The first thing you will learn is light,” Eda said.

Tracing a circle in the air, Eda created a glowing yellow ring that transformed into an orb of golden light. Capturing Luz’s awe.

“Do I just think, glowing light and draw?” Luz said.

Trying to do just that only for nothing to show up in the air for her. Disappointed, Luz looked at her hands wondering how exactly her magic was supposed to manifest.

“Witches used to do magic differently, but I never bothered to learn how. I’m sorry kid, but you’ll figure out how it was done.” Eda said, ruffling Luz’s hair trying to encourage her.

“For now, it’s work time,” Eda said, pulling out the list from her hair and giving it to Luz who unfolded it and sunk down when realizing the work she had ahead of her.

At Hexside, Amity, Willow, and Gus walked with each other in silence. Though they now walked closer together as a proper group instead of drifting apart from one another. Something that most students regarded as new but weren’t surprised that what they had considered inevitable had happened.

As the cursed witches went about grabbing their materials they did split up when going to their lockers, and as Amity got the first round of materials from her locker she could hear Boscha and the rest of her gang coming up to her.

“Hey, finally being welcomed into the cursed freaks club, or did you let loose already Scales?” Boscha mocked.

Amity looked at Boscha with a lack of interest and disregard for her words in general, a look the group were surprised Amity could still uphold after everything that had happened. Yet there was nothing else to do but scoff after feeling defeated with Amity simply deciding to walk away. The lingering aura of authority she had over them and confidence in her walk making that easy for her.

Though she had lost her group, Amity adjusted the pin on the cloak portion of her uniform that named her the top student of Hexside. Proud that her effort and work had allowed her to keep that position of high regard at the school. Looking back for a moment in the direction of Boscha’s group, Amity thought about her still mixed feelings on being ostracized from the group. Especially from being in a position of authority, arguably just alongside Boscha. It was a reminder of the attention she had attracted due to her family status, something that had kept her on a high pedestal in the eyes of the Emperor’s Coven. How proud Lilith had been to have her as an apprentice. However, she had never cared for the group genuinely as friends. Amity was always so distant from them whenever they were supposed to hang out together, it was never fun being around them and she was rather apathetic to their bullying of other witches around their age. At times Amity did wonder if her being around had forced them to be restrained in their bullying, even if her calling the group out had meant making backhanded comments about the group’s victims it just seemed like Boscha encouraged her friends to be as vicious as possible. In essence, it all seemed like a charade motivated by Amity’s parents wanting the Blight household to remain in the social circle of other families of similar status. There was something of a relief that despite losing that status, despite Lilith and her parents considering her curse a trade-off for her magical talents to have to hide her away in secret, she no longer attracted the attention of those kinds of witches, wasn’t under the same social pressure, no longer kept hidden in dark rooms by the adult figures she had grown to trust, and now she had friends who genuinely cared for her.

She now sat with them in Abomination 101, a pair of witches known as Yumi and Claus. Finding solidarity in their studious and hard-working natures Amity shared a couple of classes with them due to being on similar skill levels. It really was a relief to have been able to develop a bond with new friends so soon, one much more sincere than any before save for Willow long ago. Though, it was becoming more and more possible to Amity that she could rekindle that friendship and start a new one with Gus. Luz’s arrival at the Owl House had led to Amity warming up to her housemates after all.

“Hey, Amity. Are you doing alright?” Yumi said, noticing that she seemed to once again be in a state of intense thought.

“Yeah. It’s just Boscha and her group trying to get on my case,” Amity said.

“She’s not going to be a problem, right? Just call on us if she tries anything she should regret,” Yumi said.

“Thanks, but she really isn’t a problem. It was just that she noticed me walking with Gus and Willow this time,” Amity said.

“Oh, are you guys starting to get along better?” Claus said.

“You can definitely say that. There’s this human who showed up and arrived at the Owl House yesterday. She’s made it easier for us to get along with each other,” Amity said.

“A human? Well, Gus must have been really excited about that, but if she’s at the Owl House, isn’t she cursed too?” Claus said.

“No, she wandered in from the human world to seek shelter. Owlbert led her here by mistake,” Amity said.

She couldn’t really admit the truth of Luz’s state, all of them were ashamed of their curse and so it wasn’t her place to admit that her friend was cursed. Not when it could be looked past as it was only believed that witches could be cursed.

“Oh, well she should be safe with you guys,” Yumi said.

Despite her confidence, Claus had his doubts and frankly, she couldn’t really blame them in light of what Eda was like.

Shortly after their talk, their class had begun and it shifted their focus to the curriculum for the day.

Back at the Owl House, Luz was looking for some kind of clues on how to unlock her magic as she was dusting the structures of the second floor holding up the roof.

“Ok, Luz. Time to look for clues, find some of that old magic.” Luz said, psyching herself up looking for some kind of books, scrolls, or just records in general around the house.

“Meh! Magic isn’t everything it’s cut out to be. What you should really be learning about are demons. Just look at the shredders on this one. It’ll just crush you up.” King said.

Then holding up his book on demons and making the demon drawing munch up in a chewing style.

“Crunch, crunch,” he said with a lot of enthusiasm trying to get Luz’s attention when it came to the idea of demon lessons.

“There’s a lot of demons out there, and I won’t always be around to chase them off. Best to learn about them now so that you’re protected later.” King said.

Trying to make her way into the small crevices, Luz got an idea on how to go about indulging King while getting some help on finding magical secrets. Crawling out of the woodwork she was dusting, she crouched down to make her offer to King.

“Could you help me find something that will teach me how to use my magic? I promise I’ll be your best student in demon studies if you do.” Luz said.  
“Hmmm. Alright, it’s a deal but in that case, your first lesson on demons will be our skills in finding items of mortal heart’s desire.” King said before running off to look for the kind of item Luz had been setting out to find up to that point.

Luz lifted up the ladder she had been using to reach the high areas of the floor starting to walk over to the area on the other side of the area she had just been cleaning. Then almost dropped it when she found the stretched out face of Hootie looking her right in the face.

“Ahhh!” she cried out.

“If you really want to find something that will help you learn how to use magic you should look in the attic. Eda probably forgot something in one of the hidden boxes.” Hootie said.

“There’s an attic? Yes! That’s the perfect place for keeping secret lost knowledge of magic.” Luz said.

Looking at her list, cleaning up the attic was also on her list of chores to complete so finding something useful to her studies would mean killing two birds with one stone.

Up in the attic, Luz started lifting up many heavy containers. Luz would call them boxes were it not for the variety of shapes and materials that they came in which she would have to come up with a name for later. So by setting them off into several piles she started getting a good sense of organizing them.

One by one, Luz opened up each box as carefully as she needed to. Looking through everything the box inside held, taking a close look at artifacts she was at many times disappointed to see they had no revelation to what she was looking for. All the while Hootie was overlooking Luz’s search looking more and more excited for her to find something.

Several more containers later and sessions of rifling through junk, Luz was no closer to finding the kind of artifacts that would show her how she was to use magic. What she had found were some random magic trinkets and several romance novels, most of which made her too flustered to read through the first few pages.

A couple of boxes in, Luz was ready to give up and just finish cleaning up the attic when she took out some plastic glasses where the lenses should be, covered by plastic strips. Luz was confused for a moment as they didn’t fit with all the other items she had been rifling through. That was when Hootie suddenly swooped in and wore them himself.

“Ha! I knew these were hidden away somewhere up here. It’s now time for Cool Hootie to make his grand entrance again. Huzzah!” he said, immediately pulling back and returning to his spot at the front door.

“Auwwgh.” Luz cried out in complaints, crossing her arms dejected over Hootie having misdirected her.

Fortunately, King had gone up to show Luz some of his findings.

“It turns out Eda didn’t have anything useful to explain your magic or showing you how to use it, but some of Amity and Willow’s books have some history that might be useful,” King said, setting the books down.

Luz started looking through the books that King had brought her, happy to see that they did indeed cover quite a bit of history that might explain how witches used to cast magic that she may be able to replicate.

“Thank you, King! Come on, help me look through and try to figure out how magic used to be done.” Luz said.

Now invested in helping Luz learn how to use magic, King sat down on the attic floor to read the early history portions of the books. Trying to figure out where the point was that witches still didn’t have their heart bile sacs. Luz took out her phone, playing the video of Eda’s lesson to try to find a link between how she performed magic and what was recorded in the history books.

A process that went on for some time, to Luz’s surprise there was much more of a focus on how witches organized themselves in their government structures and the legitimacy of standing government as opposed to a more focused view on their magic and how it developed. However, that history she was looking for became more apparent when she read the entries on individual spell innovators. It was an archeologist witch who uncovered some of the major secrets of how magic used to be. Luz took a close look to see that there were many symbols preserved by being carved into the walls or written down. Each of them labeled with an associated use.

Seeing Eda cast the spell again, Luz paused it once the circle had been encapsulated in a direct parallel to the spells drawn within a circle as uncovered by Ginna Viencil. Squinting, Luz could see a similar symbol appearing within the circle Eda had created when teaching her the light spell.

“Is that the same symbol?” Luz asked herself as she placed her phone against the book, raising the brightness on her phone and tracing the book’s symbol over the display to find they had been both the same symbol used for performing a light spell.

King looked over to watch Luz put the pieces together as she took out her notepad and pencil to trace the glyph. Completing it, Luz tapped her finger on the paper, starting to wonder if there was a next step to completing the means of using magic altogether. With that, a kind of magical circuit seemed to have been completed. The paper started disappearing and the glyph started turning into a bright light that consumed the paper and rose up as an orb of light.

Fascinated, Luz looked up at the rising orb. Ecstatic to see that it was still holding itself in the air. Reaching out to hold it, Luz gazed upon the orb seeing her own power now having come to light which gave her hope that she could learn so much more in the time to come. She then went about practicing the glyph more and more which lit up the attic for every orb that joined in rising up and cast a bright light Luz would soon follow.

“Come on King. Let’s put away Amity’s and Willow’s books. It’s demon lesson time.” Luz said.

“Yes! Prepare yourself, innocent imp. You have much to learn in the ways of the terrible and infernal.” King said, grabbing the book he had gotten from Willow’s room to put away.

Over at Hexside, classes were just about wrapping up.

Willow finished up her notes for the day, giving the Cyphris Tree before her a little pat as she started getting ready to leave. The Green Room was just about her favorite place at school, it had been hard and was still a bad memory to leave home out of shame for how she was looked at because of her curse. However, living with Eda took away a lot of the pressure her parents had placed when it came to what they considered best for her future. Eda was against the principles of school in general, but she still valued them having their freedom and so switching to the plant magic track was no problem for her. Though it still made her bashful how insistent Eda seemed at times that she use her magic to wreak havoc.

It made it easier to make friends, even if her classmates had started out being scared of her as though she was likely to crack under most circumstances they were now open and looked to her as someone proficient enough in her talent that she could be relied upon as a tutor. As well as a friend in general because of her kind disposition.  
Gus made the last of his doubles disappear, collecting their notes for the day glad that they had been cooperative that time as it was always a pain to make up for notes in class when faulty duplicates decided they wanted to try to rebel when it came to their position. He could see that he had a bit of studying to do, he hoped that Willow wasn’t busy that day but then he considered whether he could ask Amity for help. She seemed much less cold as of late, and her proficiency in studying meant she had time for herself. Though, it couldn’t hurt too much for him to ask in that case especially as she was supposed to set an example as top student.

“Hey Gus, don’t forget we have a Human Appreciation Club meeting tomorrow,” Mischa said as she was leaving class.

“Oh yeah, thanks but I always remember the meetings,” Gus said.

Mischa giggled before responding.

“Of course you do. I should have been the one remembering you’re such a little scholar,” she said.

Gus sighed before going off to look for Willow, he knew Mischa wasn’t being malicious with her flattery but the way she was fawning reminded him of how young he was among all of his classmates.

Then there was the matter of the club, despite being young his passion and dedication to study everything related to humans to the best of his ability meant he had a good chance of being president but then there was the matter of his curse. The club had a hard time being taken seriously in general and given his state, that would only make their reputation worse. Making it a hard sell for him to fill the spot, but at least Mischa did well as the standing leader. Now with Luz’s arrival, Gus was tempted more and more over how bringing a real human could make everyone else overlook that. Except, he had no idea how Luz would feel about that and he didn’t want to rope her into a scheme she hadn’t agreed to.

By being caught up in such thoughts he had almost missed Willow which made it fortunate she had spotted him and called out to keep his attention.

“Hey, Gus! Over here! Are you ready to go?” she said.

“Yeah. Thanks for stopping me there, I kind of just zoned out there while trying to look for you,” he said.

“That’s Ok. Um, are you, looking for someone?” Willow said as Gus looked around wondering if Amity had warmed up enough to them to want to look around and find them to go home together.

“I thought maybe Amity would join us this time,” he said.

“She probably went on ahead already. Come on, we should go,” she said.

With a bit of hesitation, Gus followed Willow, still keeping an eye out for Amity in case she was ready to join them.

Just as they were going right for the exit, Boscha and her group noticed the pair as they had stuck around laughing over having caught one of their classmates in an embarrassing moment.

“This is pretty late for you two to be leaving. I guess you finally have the sense to not make everyone else see your face if they don’t have to. Scoot along Sludge, you’ll have to drag along The Willow with you. Just look at how stiff she is.” Boscha said.

Indeed, as the group was laughing Willow appeared much stiffer. Clamming up and pulling up her hood as she was taunted by the mean girls.

“Come on, let’s just go,” Gus said, trying to nudge Willow along despite how rooted she was.

Having finished up her talks with her professors, Amity looked at the scene before her. Annoyed as Boscha continued spewing her insults.

“Looks like you’re not even half a witch anymore, just a rooted tree,” Boscha said, coaxing another round of jeering laugh from her group.

“Speaking of half a witch. Have you finally gotten a hang of that snow spell, or are you hoping potions will make up for that too?” Amity said to Boscha.

Boscha looked at Amity caught off guard by her retort. Hearing Amity bring that up reminded Boscha of just how much she had told her in confidence. All of her humiliating secrets and struggles to still keep up in many of her classes outside of her track which she was perfectly competent in. Not wanting to risk being exposed completely and utterly by Amity, Boscha backed off and mumbled as she tried to gain her composure again.

“Why don’t you freaks just get lost? We’ve got more important things to do.” Boscha said, leading her group out now that they were just as nervous over how much they had revealed to Amity. Regretting how she had been so closed off to them leaving no ammunition on their part.

“Thanks, Amity. That was really cool how you got them to back off.” Gus said.

“Yeah, thanks,” Willow said, gently but steadily with more confidence. Seeing Amity in a new light now that she had come to their defense.

“It was nothing. They would have held us up, let’s get home already.” Amity said.

Despite her insistent tone, Willow and Gus knew there was a sincerity to her coming to their defense she didn’t want to admit to. She could have walked off confidently and forced Boscha to step aside like she always did, but she stopped and came to their defense. Quite likely intimidating them to the point they’d be far from easy targets. Amity even walked between Gus and Willow as they walked that path home much more confident than ever.

Reaching the front door, the trio of witches were met with a horrible sight. Hootie bopping his head to some music blaring so loud from his headphones they could hear it even from a couple of feet away.

“Welcome back guys, do you have the cool status to be able to go inside?” he said.

Gus and Willow groaned as Amity pinched the bridge of her nose over the reminder of the days Hootie had tried to assert himself as the coolest person in the house after taking the glasses he was now wearing from the recent collection of human items Eda had come upon at the time. Leading to many sleepless nights and days standing in front of the door trying to talk down Hootie. Something they had seen the last of when Eda had forced the glasses off him and stored away somewhere he couldn’t reach.

Having none of it, Amity simply yanked the glasses off Hootie and tossed them as far into the woods as she could muster the strength for.

“Hey! My glasses! I can’t reach that far!” Hootie shouted in despair.

“Listen here you glorified knocker. Cool Hootie is never happening again, and you better not try bringing that back. Ever.” Amity said.

“Alright, geez. Calm down. Just chill out already.” Hootie said as he opened up to let them in.  
Once inside, the trio was surprised to see the whole place covered in light orbs, and sitting on the floor drawing several light glyphs was Luz in the middle of creating more light. Looking up Luz sprung up in excitement over seeing her friends back from school. 

“Hi, guys. Was it a fun day today or a lot of sheet work kind of day?” Luz said.

“Luz. How long have you been casting light spells?” Amity said, stepping forward and holding one of the orbs impressed by the magical strength holding the orbs together.

“I’d say, just for the last hour. There were still a lot of chores when I learned how to use magic.” Luz said.

“This is all from your magic? A human, with magic.” Gus said, grinning over what that meant for how humans were understood.

“Did you figure out how to do a spell circle?” Willow said, sitting down to see what Luz was doing.

“Not exactly. I used glyphs for this.” Luz explained, showing them how she would draw her glyphs and cast a spell as a result.

‘Luz, you’re just full of surprises. I don’t know whether to be excited or scared of what else you’ll do.’ Amity thought to herself as she sat down to appreciate Luz’s light show too.


	4. Moonlight Conjuring

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now coming upon her magical gifts in her own right, Luz participates in a traditional witches' social event with her friends.

Eda was remarkably proud of Luz, though she did have to have everyone help dispel all the light orbs as it was making the house rather blindingly bright.

“Luz, I get you were excited about being able to do magic but did you really have to put light orbs everywhere in the house?” Amity said, not believing she had to stuff herself into the support of the lower roof to dispel one of the light orbs.

“I thought it would give the place more of a warm homey feeling, and also I didn’t think so many of them would float off once I made them,” Luz said, admitting the last half much more reluctantly.

“Well. Aim for the windows if you’re not sure about that next time,” Amity said.

Luz seemed to give the thumbs up in accepting that tip then hurried up with the task.

The next day had gone rather similarly, save for no large amount of light orbs everyone had to clear up which led to free time for the young witches now that their homework was complete.

“Hey Amity, wanna join in on playing some Beast Dice?” Willow said as Luz, Gus, and she had sat down with their dice to play.

“Sure, give me the pink ones,” Amity said, sitting down next to Luz and holding her hand out to Willow who was holding the dice bag.

They then played a few rolls with each other. Willow playing with the chimeras, Gus with the basilisks, Luz with the unicorns and Amity with the griffins.

Several rolls which were only interrupted when Luz noticed Eda playing a card game with Owlbert that had resulted in several of said cards growing sharp teeth and growling at each other before some of them were set on fire.

“Woah! Eda, what’s this that you’re playing?” Luz asked.

Eda shuffled her cards before she got to explaining.

“What you see here is Hexes Hold em’. The most tricky game on the Boiling Isles, any decent witch knows how to play.” Eda said.

“That’s not exactly true,” Amity said, crossing her arms and taking the comment a bit personally. Having never learned how to play and she had planned to never do so.

“Kid, it’s not your fault you were being taught by Lilith most of your life but you are at fault for not taking the initiative to learn the past six months you’ve been here now,” Eda said.

Amity sighed before trying to dissuade Luz from her interest.

“Don’t mind Eda on this one, Luz. Hexes Hold Em’ is a gambler’s game, it will bring you nothing but trouble.” Amity said.

“Luz, your friend is still a bit caught up with her high society morals but if you always play your cards right then you can never go wrong. What you should always remember is the wild card.” Eda said, demonstrating the card’s power by playing it and setting Owlbert’s half of the deck on fire again.

“Um, Eda. You’re feather sprouting again.” Willow said, pointing at Eda’s arm in concern.

“Ah!” Eda looked at her arm with worry once she saw that she was sprouting feathers as was usual for her curse.

Joining in seeing if Eda had extra elixir in her supply box everyone was scared to see every single bottle was empty.

“How do you not have a single elixir in here?!” Amity asked in shock.

“I’ve been really busy in case that’s escaped your notice,” Eda said.

“Busy playing that card game, you’re obsessed!” King said.

“I am not. I can stop whenever I’d like.” Eda said.

“Apparently that means not right now,” Amity said.

Looking down at the deck Eda asked.

“Am I winning?”

Willow shook her head after taking a look at the deck Eda had at that moment.

“Darn it,” Eda said.

“Well, it’s time to head to the market.”

“Alright! First time at a magical market!” Luz said with excitement.

The kids then agreed to slip Eda’s deck out of her grasp and have Owlbert fly off ahead with them.

When they arrived at the market everything was pretty standard fare to the three witches who had lived on the Boiling Isles their whole life but Luz was fascinated by everything before her. From the unique magical creatures kept in their cages to even strange assorted metals that some blacksmiths had created just that morning.

“So many awesome things to look at. Like this pink cube of glowing gems floating in this purple slime stuff.” Luz said.

“Luz, that’s a toe,” Amity said.

“What kind of toe?” Luz said.

Willow, Gus, and Amity looked at each other wondering if they should answer that.

“Sasquatch.”

“Troll.”

“Orc.”

They had all given a different answer and were now regretting their course of action because of how much more suspicious that made their reluctance.

“Are you gonna buy a toe or not?” the grumpy shop keeper asked Luz.

“Um.” Luz started, looking over at her friends wondering if any of them would offer some money. Though it was soon clear by all of them shaking their heads that was not going to happen, so she went right back over to them after putting the jar down.

Hearing an approaching group giggling to one another they turned to see who it was coming from and seeing Boscha with the rest of her group Luz could tell they weren’t exactly good news with Gus and Willow looking at them with worry while Amity looked quite annoyed.

Boscha and her group paused, trying to find a way to slip past with Amity around only to take notice of Luz.

“Hold on. Is that a human? Did you freaks really take in a human? Wow, where did you even get one?” Boscha then snickered over what she had just pointed out.

“Mind your own business Boscha, unless you want to know what a human can do when you make them upset,” Amity said.  
“Yeah. They’ve got acid spit and their touch can give you a rash.” Gus said.

“Also. A human’s hugs, can squeeze out all your oxygen.” Luz said, improvising something before charging at the group which made them run off in terror.

The sight of which made all four of them laugh.

“Do they bother you guys much?” Luz asked, worried for her friends.

“They’ve backed off recently,” Amity said, placing a hand on her hip as she remembered yesterday.

A little after, Eda came back noticeably empty-handed much to the worry of her young wards.

“So, my usual place isn’t carrying my elixir. I’ll have to try my luck at the night market which means you kids have the night to yourselves. But remember. Don’t mess up the house.” Eda said.

The gravity of which Eda had said the last part as a command was heavy on Luz, hearing her lay down the law like that for the first time and a serious moment of her meaning business to Amity, Willow, and Gus.

“Can we still do the Moonlight Conjuring?” Willow asked.

“As much as that falls under baby magic, no. I can’t have the risk of your ritual messing up the house. You and Amity alone have way too much power for that to stay controlled.” Eda said.

“What’s a Moonlight Conjuring?” Luz asked in concern. 

“Just a couple of friends spending time together. Playing games, telling stories. Then you bring something to life with moon magic. Look, the moon is already-”

Willow was about to point out the moon was already rising into place when everyone remembered what that meant for Luz.

“The moon!” everyone shouted as they scrambled to get Luz covered up in her full moon ensemble.

“Everyone hurry up! Luz will be cursed the whole night if we let a single moonbeam hit her.” Eda said as she rushed everyone off back to the house.  
A few hours later, Eda had gotten herself ready for her trip to the Night Market and was in the living room going over everything with the kids again.

“Alright. All of you remember, no Moonlight Conjuring, make sure Hootie doesn’t get into trouble and take care of the house. Amity, you’re in charge.” Eda said.

“I don’t need a baby sitter! I’m a big boy house!” Hootie protested

“Hootie, you still roll around in the mud on house cleaning day.” Amity reminded him.

“It’s what big boy houses do,” Hootie said.

“Hey, where’s King?” Luz said.

“Right here,” Eda said, pulling back her cloak to reveal King had been placed in a baby carrier now asleep.

“Aww. He’s so dangly.” Luz said while playing with King’s adorable tiny legs.

“He does that when he’s weightless,” Willow said.

“Alright. Actually heading off this time. Remember, if anything happens while I’m gone I am never trusting any of you again. No pressure.” Eda said before walking off into the night.

With Eda having left with her words hanging heavy in the air, the group was hesitant about going through with the Moonlight Conjuring but only so much as children nervous about their parents finding out about them breaking their rules. There was still a strong temptation among the kids to go through with their fun. For Gus and Willow, it was having enough friends to be part of one for the first time. For Amity, she finally had friends she genuinely wanted to have a Moonlight Conjuring with and could give all of her enthusiasm instead of going along with despite her boredom or even opting out altogether. Luz wanted to participate in a ritual now that she had discovered her magical abilities, the novelty of the moment was great despite the risks presented by the full moon with just the magical significance of the event alone motivating her to take part anyway.

Amity looked out at the windows taking a close look to make sure the light from the moon wasn’t entering, satisfied with how the colored panes seemed to be blocking them out. Looking over to Luz still dressed head to toe in her black cloak, veil and everything else meant to protect her from her curse Amity walked over to Luz.  
“Are you feeling alright?” Amity asked.

“Yeah, don’t worry Amity. All this stuff makes for the perfect moon armor.” Luz said.

Amity reached for Luz’s hood, securing it around her head and making sure the robe itself was secure around Luz. Though, Amity was quite close to Luz and in fact face to face with her making Luz blush from seeing Amity fuss over her and the general attention she was providing within such a close distance. Amity on her part was handling the matter with a stoic expression, pretending it was a casual gesture for her when in reality she looked at Luz thinking about how her veil reminded her of a bride and a blushing one at that considering how flustered Luz was. For Luz, it was a moment that got her heart racing. Amity’s stern expression and confidence in her movements made Luz feel that the moment was intimidating and yet quite romantic. So much so that she hadn’t noticed Amity undoing the top button of the robe just to tighten it back up. Using that excuse to squeeze Luz’s top part of her arms and pat them.

“There you are, it’s good and ready for you,” Amity said.

“Um. Thanks for. Thank you, I’m grateful to you.” Luz said, finally settling on something to show her gratitude. Only becoming more embarrassed as she tripped over her own words.

Gus and Willow, having seen all that happen in the few seconds it actually took place and feeling the romantic energy of that moment became quite confused over when Luz and Amity had built up such feelings for one another. For they knew there were strong emotions on both of their friends’ parts. It made it awkward for Willow to clear her throat and draw their attention.

“So, since this is the first Moonlight Conjuring for most of us,” Willow said.

“If it helps, this is the first Moonlight Conjuring I care about,” Amity said.

“That is pretty comforting actually,” Willow said.

Willow then started walking around the living room hoping to find something beautiful, special, and meaningful to bring to life with the conjuring.

“Since this is our first Moonlight Conjuring together we should pick something meaningful and beautiful to animate,” Willow said.

Gus interestingly enough seemed prepared for that suggestion as he pulled out a muscular Beef Bob toy.  
“Like this strangely buff little man?!” Gus said.

“Yes! He’s perfect!” Luz said out loud to the subtle disappointment of Willow and much more obvious disappointment of Amity.

“That’s not exactly what I meant by beautiful,” Willow said.

“Hey. It’s not much worse than the stuff Boscha would pull out.” Amity said, remembering the kind of dolls Boscha would try to convince everyone to animate.

Seeing Gus tear up did well in convincing Willow and Amity to go with Gus’ suggestion.

“Ok. Buff Boy it is.” Willow said.

“Won’t make much of a mess at least,” Amity said.

“Yes!” Luz said, hugging both Amity and Willow. Though she seemed to press herself up more closely to Amity, who seemed quite happy with such an action.

“Tonight he shall be risen!” Gus said.

The four kids then arranged themselves, kneeling on the floor after Gus placed his toy in the middle. Luz was sitting to Amity’s left and Willow sat on Luz’s right with Gus to Willow’s left and Amity’s right.

“Amity, you know most of this already so I’ll cover everything for Luz and Gus’ sake. We say the incantation and make a connection with the doll.” Willow said.

“Figurine,” Gus said.

“Whatever.” Amity dismissed a bit annoyed, considering it a distinction without a difference.

Holding hands together, Luz’s and Amity’s hearts were beating a bit faster even as they closed their eyes and tried to focus on the ritual.

“Moonlight we call, we sing. Moonlight take this chance. Moonlight come tie the string. Moonlight start the dance!” the three witches started chanting.

Luz, not knowing the words simply mumbled what she could make out until admitting at the end.  
“I don’t know the words.”

The chant aligned with the proper placement of the moon and suddenly a powerful force of moonlight magic was evoked by their magic. Spreading throughout the house and overtaking Hootie himself.

“That’s your cue little man,” Gus said, having expected the power to overtake the Beef Boy toy.

Instead, the whole house started shaking until it rose and uprooted itself from the ground rising with the assistance of chicken-like legs.

“Guys! Did the whole house just hiccup?!” Luz asked in her delirium.

“Little buff guy, what did you do?” Gus said speaking to his toy.

As though it had been brought to life with the power of the conjuring the toy seemed to answer appropriately after another squeeze.

“A real man never takes accountability.”

“Gus, I think you should really find better role models,” Amity said, rubbing her head.

“No. I think. I think we might have animated the house by accident.” Willow said.

“The house!?” Luz cried out in shock.

Luz seemed to run toward the door to go out and look for herself only to be pulled back by Amity.

“Luz! No! Even with precautions, you can’t risk going out on a full moon.” Amity said.

“Hootie. What’s going on?” Luz said.

“By the power of moonlight, I have risen. Hoot hoot,” he said.

“He’s in some kind of trance,” Gus said.

“Our magic must have accidentally spread through the house instead of the doll,” Willow said.

“Figurine,” Gus said.

“Is this really the time?!” Amity said to Gus, still very annoyed by the comment.

“Everyone, hold hands again. We can make Hootie stop if we hold on and give commands since that’s how we animated him.” Amity explained, knowing from experience from past Moonlight Conjurings.

Under her instructions, the group held hands again and in desperation shouted.

“Hootie. Stop!”

Not a moment too soon as Hootie was about to walk off right past a cliff.

“We control it with friendship,” Willow said with excitement only to be shot down by Amity’s look of judgment.

“And the moon, probably the moon,” Willow said.

“This is amazing! What do we do now?” Gus said.

“On the one hand, we should probably stay put,” Luz said.

“No. What we should do is get Hootie back to the spot Eda built the house on and clean up this mess we made before she comes back and kills us!” Amity said.

She then aggressively held Gus and Luz’s hand, pulling in Willow to complete the circle.

“Hootie! Take us back! Now!” Amity shouted.

For a moment the house started moving back to where Hootie had made the whole structure rise up from the ground.

“Hootie, stop,” Gus said. Then immediately pulling back from the circle.

“Augustus! What do you think you’re doing?!” Amity demanded angrily.

As Gus began to run off out of Amity’s reach, she became much more irate.

“Gus! You come back here and close the circle! We are going back now!” Amity shouted.

Unfortunately for her, Gus then found a tight corner and transformed into his slime form. Slipping in and keeping himself out of Amity’s grasp.

“Gus! Don’t think I won’t tear these floorboards apart! I will and then you’re going to have to be the one to fix them.” Amity said.

Gus seemed to partially reform enough for his mouth to be seen.

“Amity, please listen to me. Luz, Willow. Back me up on this. We already animated Hootie, why don’t we use this night to take an awesome joyride?” Gus said.

“The Moonlight Conjuring is supposed to be a night when we just have fun. You know Eda is probably going to spend most of the night at the market. Why don’t we just have fun and then get back before the moon sets?” Willow said.

“Yeah, come on Amity. Take it easy on Gus, I promise I’ll help you make sure we get back on time to clean and not get in trouble with Eda.” Luz said.

Amity growled as she held her head, stressed out by the situation before her.

“Eda left me in charge. I knew I shouldn’t have gone ahead and joined in. All I thought was we’d bring to life a little doll.” Amity started.

“Figurine,” Gus said.

“Gus! If you bring that up one more time, I swear to!” Amity said angrily, stomping on the floorboards as she did. Calming down when Luz and Willow held her back.

“I thought we’d have a bit of fun and clean up after a few hours of it. Eda isn’t even that strict on rules, this was one of those rare times she asked us to behave. We can’t make up for this, we need to get back and fix everything if we have a hope in making up for this.” Amity said.

“Amity, I’m sorry this happened. Really I am, but we can’t let this night be ruined. Let’s just have a bit of fun and then we’ll fix this whole mess.” Willow said.

“Yeah, Amity. We’ll fix everything and then we won’t have to worry. I promise.” Luz said, holding out her hand.  
Amity sighed, a deep one filled with frustration but soon after there was a calmness to her as she took Luz’s hand and Willow took the other. Gus then pulled himself out in his slime form and reformed, holding hands and completing the circle.

“If it convinces you guys to go back then fine, but I’m not going to have fun with this,” Amity said.

Despite that, everyone else cheered as they took Hootie through a house style joy ride through the forest. Unbeknownst to them were demon hunters who now considered them a target.

Meanwhile, at the Night Market Eda was looking for the shady merchant known as Grim Hammer expecting to have to deal with some rough type to be able to purchase her elixir at such an hour. What she found instead was an unassuming looking merchant who looked like an anthropomorphic pig with a tail that ended in a fork-shape. King seemed to wake up just in time to celebrate the merchant’s declaration that he sold jelly beans, even if they were lethally delicious which meant Eda had to slap them out of her little demon friend’s hand. Grim Hammer became even more unassuming when it seemed he preferred being called Tibbles which King gleefully mocked. However, Eda was quickly outraged by the choice to sell the elixir at ten thousand snails. Tibbles using capitalism as his excuse was infuriating for a number of reasons, to say the least. For a moment there seemed to be hope that Eda could acquire her elixir free of charge if she won a round of Hexes Hold Em’.

Luz, Willow, and Gus continued to have fun in their magical joyride much to Amity’s chagrin up until they spotted Boscha.

“Hey, is that.” Willow started.

“It’s Boscha, that girl who always makes fun of us,” Gus said.

Below, Boscha seemed to be having a conversation with her mother that she was very annoyed with and that they could make out even from their height and distance.

“Ugh! Yes, mom, I’m going to a Moonlight Conjuring. No mom, you can’t come, and yes mom it’s sad that you’re asking.” she said.

The call seemed to end there as Boscha then let go of the raven she was using to make the call.

‘Oh, Boscha. I see you still feel like you’re more of an adult than your mother.’ Amity thought to herself.

“She noticed us. What do we do?” Willow said.

Amity was about to suggest waiting till Boscha just kept walking and made it on her way when she looked over to see Luz smirking as an idea for a prank started to form in her mind and Amity kind of liked it.

“Guys, do you have any sort of voice enhancement spell to make sure my voice reaches her?” Luz said.

“I know exactly the kind of spell you’re asking for,” Gus said. Starting to draw the circle spell for her.

“Hold on, let me give you a voice modifier spell to make sure she doesn’t recognize you,” Amity said, drawing a circle spell over Luz’s neck.

Once the spells were combined together, Luz started the call out.

“Hey! Hey you! You should uh, stop being so mean to people. You’re kind of a jerk.” Luz said, emphasizing herself when she called Boscha a jerk.

Willow had been holding back her laughter while Amity just had a huge smirk on her face, but once Gus started laughing Amity joined in as Willow and Luz started to as well.

“Ew. A house is giving me a lecture. You know what I’ll just teepee you like I did the rest of the neighborhood.” Boscha said.

“I knew it was you,” Amity grumbled.

“But don’t you see. I am no mere house.” Luz said, they all then formed a circle with each other again to make the house rise up and reveal what at the moment was its full form. Accompanied by Luz doing her best roar.  
As Boscha ran off screaming in terror, the three laughed with great joy. Glad to have taught their tormenter a bit of a lesson.

“I never pranked anyone before, and now I have a taste for it,” Gus said.

“Gus. No.” Amity said.

“Looks like Boscha is joining a Moonlight Conjuring tonight. I’m guessing they must be having it at Sylania’s since Blight Manor isn’t an option for them. Sorry about that, Amity.” Willow said.

“No, it’s alright. Boscha and the others made every Moonlight Conjuring a bore, we never had any fun like this. You’re probably making the right guess since Jinlain Manor would be the next best place.” Amity said, pulling up her Penstagram to check.

“We should follow her to show off our conjuring. That will show her who’s half a witch.” Willow said.

Looking up towards the moon Luz was hesitant upon seeing how close it was to set and Amity felt similarly concerned over how much of the night had passed.

“Actually we should probably be heading back,” Luz said. Amity smiled, glad Luz was making the right decision only for Gus to bring up something on Penstagram.

“Sylania and her friends are updating their Penstagram.”

“Shout out to my fellow witches.” Luz started reading out loud only for Amity to join in reading the hashtag with much outrage.

“Humans can bite it.”

As Luz gasped rather offended, Amity clenched up and became red with anger clear on her face. Not realizing she wasn’t breathing until she calmed down and held her chest almost passing out.

“Let’s do it,” Luz said.

Amity was quick to join in the circle again, now gun-ho about showing up her old girl posse to defend Luz’s honor. Though in their hubris there followed the demon hunters who had spotted them earlier that night.  
As their march toward Jinlain Manor continued, witches of all sorts ran in terror at the sight of the Owl House provided massive chicken legs for movement. They were only a few strides away when they were suddenly stopped in their tracks by a rope fired by a giant crossbow which Luz quickly took notice of and pointed out as Willow wondered out loud what had happened.

“Oh no! Demon hunters!” Amity said.

“Demon hunters?!” Luz asked quite afraid of even the idea of such people.

Suddenly, one of the nomad hunters jumped up on the piece of earth Hootie had brought along with the house itself and soon enough the demon hunters had tied up the group of kids, having to use a decent amount of strength as they had to deal with them struggling and do their best to use their magic. Once they were secured with the ropes they were thrown into the house as the demon hunters then began transporting the entirety of the risen Owl House.

Even then they weren’t about to give up. As Gus tried biting through the ropes, Amity shook her arms around trying to find the opening in the knots where the rope had been tied and Luz was kicking at the door trying to get Hootie to stir.

“Hootie! Hootie! You have to wake up!” Luz shouted.

“If you want this to end as you say. Four must hold hands. It’s the only way.” Hootie said.

“Oye! No me hable asi.” Luz said, a bit more irate.

“Amity! Willow! Will you help me out with Hootie?” Luz said, Willow being the only one really taking the situation lying down.

“I’m sorry guys, you shouldn’t ask me to help you out with anything,” Willow said.

“Willow,” Luz said softly, hoping to comfort her as Gus looked at her confused and Amity looked at her old friend with sadness for her.

Everything seemed to jolt again, the demon hunters coming to a sudden stop before going in and forcing the kids out.

“Take the house and rip up the house demon. We can sell it to restaurants as exotic meat.” the one who seemed to be the leader said.   
“No! Hootie would taste terrible.” Luz said.

“Hey! I’m a refined taste. Hoot hoot.” Hootie said.

“Stupid, arrogant house. Can’t even make sure you stay alive.” Amity said with a bit of bitterness.

“What should we do with the worms?” another one of the demon hunters said.

“First we see if this one is another demon hiding in the midst or a wanted witch. Considering she has to cover herself so completely.” the leader said.

“No don’t!” the four shouted simultaneously as Luz’s hood was pulled back and her veil removed.

With the full moon shining head-on at Luz the transformation began to take place immediately, she cried out in pain as every part of her body started to transform. Fur growing, teeth becoming sharper as her face stretched out resembling a canine form.

Bones shifting places as she grew larger and her legs became bent, with claws growing from nails. The transformation allowed the ropes to snap and be broken, freeing the witches who looked on in shock and awe at the sight of their friend turning into the state of her cursed form.

When the transformation was complete Luz howled, a long cry to the moon that had been the reason for her shifting into her current form. Looking at all the demon hunters she snarled and crouched ready to pounce on them.

“A werewolf. Well, looks like we’ve got a big payday tonight everyone.” the demon hunter said.

“No! You won’t take her. I won’t allow it!” Amity said as the demon hunters started to cast their shock spells.

Amity’s eyes shifted, her pupils becoming thin and narrow as she willingly transformed into her cursed form. Her skin becoming scales with horns growing from her head and wings sprouting from her back. With her own mighty roar, she flew to the sky once completely in her dragon form before flying down breathing fire on the demon hunters. Looking at one another, Gus and Willow nodded agreeing they should join in the fight with their own forms as they didn’t know many battle spells.

Gus transformed into his slime form, a large mass of thick blue sticky goop that started roaming over and trapping the demon hunters who tried to rush at him. He seemed to be able to absorb any spell they cast and every swing of their swords or other weapons seemed to just make the weapon get stuck in his body. Willow transformed, arms stretched out as her body became that of a plant. She was like a nymph, a torso that seemed humanoid but she was now all wood or leaf with long vine arms covered in thorns and many more plants growing around her joining in the fight against the demon hunters.

Amity and Luz were ferocious in their fight against the demon hunters, with great strength to knock them back as they tried to charge. At times knocking them down unable to fight with Amity’s fire breath chasing off many of the hunters now unarmed.

The kids seemed to be winning out with the fight going in their favor when the strongest and last demon hunter standing got to the crossbow again and aimed another bolt at Luz.

When it fired, Luz whimpered. Then looked around snarling looking for the one who had fired only for Amity to find him first, and when she did. Amity flying forward with vengeance and fury in her eyes was the last thing the demon hunter had seen.

With the threat of the demon hunters now dealt with and Hootie freed, everyone had shifted back except for Luz who was unable to change back with the night still holding the moon in the sky.

As Luz had still been hurt and licking her wound Amity approached her slowly.

“Amity, I don’t think you should.” Willow started only for Amity to hold up her hand signaling Gus and Willow to back off.

Luz, in her much more bestial form, growled at Amity unable to recognize her and only afraid of coming to harm again.

“Luz. It’s Ok, you’re going to be alright as soon as we help you.” Amity said, taking slow and steady steps with her hand held out to Luz.

Luz snarled now, becoming more aggressive but trying to scoot away from Amity.

Amity never faltered, she continued walking until she was touching Luz’s arm.

Luz whimpered, now knowing Amity’s feeling of sympathy as Willow and Gus looked surprised over Amity being allowed by a werewolf to approach and touch her so closely. Amity then wrapped her arms around Luz’s neck to hug her, resting on her shoulder to hide her tears from Gus and Willow.

“It’s alright Luz, I’m here now. You have no idea how glad I am you’re safe now. Everything’s going to be OK. We’re going to help you. You can count on me from now on.” Amity whispered, glad for Luz’s sensitive hearing to keep her words private.

Luz even in her werewolf form seemed to understand the weight behind Amity’s words and nuzzled against Amity.

Once Luz seemed comfortable having all three witches near her they got to work healing her and making sure the damage was repaired before joining hands and paws, glad that the magic still worked and so made their way back home.

As Eda had been conned into a Hexes Hold Em’ game with Tibbles, she was very much at risk of losing King and being turned in to the Emperor’s Coven. Luckily, Hootie making his way back was just the chaos Eda needed to get her elixir and have the curse reversed so she could use her magic. Turning away from Hexes Hold Em’ entirely Eda seemed to further mock the greedy scammer by throwing away her deck at him before walking away. Eda and King enjoyed the sound of Tibbles yelling impotently that he would have his revenge. He would certainly try but that time would not come anytime soon, in fact, it would be a while before he would go after that revenge.

By the time the Owl House had been restored to its proper place daylight had finally come. In fact, it was the brink of dawn and because of that Luz had reverted back to her normal form. Albeit, with much pain and the feeling of an intense headache.

“Are you guys alright?” she asked.

“We’re fine, Luz,” Willow said.

“Are you going to be alright? That transformation must have been really hard on you. You can go upstairs and rest. We’ll clean up down here.” Amity said.

“No, it’s alright. I can still help, and, Amity.” Luz said. 

She then seemed to be about to say something else only to then hug Amity tight, much to the witches’ surprise.

“Thank you. Thank you for not being afraid even when I was a monster.” Luz said.

“How could I ever be afraid? When you were brave even when meeting me as a dragon and not even knowing the witch I really am. I know the human you really are, the kind soul who’d never hurt me.” Amity said.

For a moment the two girls hugged one another, happy to be in each other’s arms only to jolt away at the sound of Eda slamming the door.

“You four are so busted! You four held a Moonlight Conjuring. Animated the house. My house!” Eda scolded as she walked towards her wards. Taking a close look at Luz’s torn clothes she looked more to the three witches.

“Luz was exposed to moonlight, wasn’t she? You all knew the danger she was in tonight and this still happened.” Eda said.

The kids then started explaining everything, trying to each take the largest part of the blame with Amity being the most prominent as she seemed especially adamant about the fact she had been appointed to be in charge. Though Gus declaring Eda should just eat him then and there was just a tad bit strange for the tense moment. Making Eda look like she tasted something bitter.

“Well you’re all guilty so this punishment falls upon all of you. You’ll be cleaning the house top to bottom.” Eda said, conjuring cleaning supplies for them to get to work.

After a pause, Eda turned to her wards again.

“And another thing. That was amazing! I’m so joining you for next year’s conjuring. Now get to work.” Eda said. Laying down on the couch afterward.

With that, the kids got to their punishment. Gus sweeping, Luz mopping, Amity dusting, and Willow spray cleaning the surfaces.  
“I can’t believe they animated the whole house,” King said.

“Yeah, that takes some powerful magic,” Eda said, looking at Gus and Luz now as she was sure that Amity and Willow despite their great power would have still needed Luz and Gus to accomplish what they did.

“You know. I still kinda wish we had gotten to show up Boscha.” Luz said.

“Yeah, too bad no one will know about our daring adventures,” Willow said.

“I doubt that,” Amity said, holding up her Penstagram scroll to show her friends all the posts everyone in town had made of them marching through with Hootie animated and how impressed everyone had been by their feat. Wondering who exactly they were. With that, they all had a little more enthusiasm for their chores knowing that such news would get back to the witches they had wanted to show up in the first place and they would know their skill as they all looked upon the pictures in shock. An extra sharp blow to their egos after a night in which they hadn’t been able to even animate a simple doll.


End file.
